by Laura Seewoester

The Open Doors Collective has taken over the Dallas Contemporary and transformed it into six, count them six, large installations.

The Dallas Contemporary opens Open Doors' "Expansion" this weekend, an interactive exhibit of large installations that knows no boundaries. Technically the exhibit opened last weekend, but (as of Tuesday) installation is not quite finished yet. But that's okay, you can't rush artistic prowess.

The Open Doors Collective is a group of mostly Texan artists based out of Austin that formed in 2004. They use divers materials, processes and artist-controlled spaces to present exhibits and installations that are "outside the box". The current exhibit features Dallas artist Nancy Brown, Austin artists Hunter Cross, Jacob Villanueva and Terra Goolsby, and Buenos Aires artist Eduardo Navarro.

Nancy Brown creates shadowy images on the walls, but not out of pencil and paper. Her medium is pins and shadows, and she manages to create contrast, or intentional lack thereof, making whispy recognizable images of animals on the walls. Hunter Cross makes a statement about success with his installation of a stairway encrusted in old trophies. Terra Goolsby designed colorful and sparkling acrylic spheres and discs that are suspended from the ceiling. She has used the reaction between nail polish and acrylic to create an outer worldly installation. Eduardo Navarro's exhibit consists of fax machines with different drawings coming out of them daily. Apparently the viewer is also allowed to take a drawing with them as a souvenir. Jacob Villanueva has put high definition screens behind cellar doors.

"Expansion" is not your regular "pretty paintings" exhibit, as it crosses the boundaries of traditional sculpture. It's also good to see artists working together on a project that's cohesive while retaining each individual style and voice. The installation should be completed by the opening reception, which takes place this Saturday.

Also showing at the Dallas Contemporary that is worth a look-see are Sara Ishii's portraits. They look like she has splattered the canvas with a big blob paint and then painted a face, or a a partial face, into the blob. They remind me of the old days in the dark room when we would splatter the chemicals onto the photo paper, leaving only a big blob developed.

What do you think?