A peek inside ‘Nasher Windows’ at Nasher Sculpture Center

Though the Nasher Sculpture Center remains closed, it has some good news for local art lovers.

Beginning May 22, passersby will be able to take in a new weekly series of street-facing exhibitions dubbed “Nasher Windows” that aim to make art safely accessible to the public. Installations by North Texas artists will be placed behind the large picture windows of the Nasher’s entrance vestibule on Flora Street so they can be viewed from outside. Signage outside the museum will remind visitors to respect social distancing guidelines.

“We wanted to find a way to support artists making incredible work in the North Texas area, many of whom have had exhibitions planned for opening in the spring and summer that have since been canceled or postponed,” says Leigh Arnold, associate curator at the Nasher.

Presented every Friday through Wednesday until the museum reopens — and there’s no date for that yet — “Nasher Windows” will feature artists selected by the Nasher’s curatorial team of Arnold, Jed Morse and Catherine Craft.

The first “Nasher Windows” exhibition, running May 22-27, will feature a recent piece by Dallas sculptor Tamara Johnson, who says her work has grown more personal since she moved back to Texas in 2018. Her 2020 sculpture Deviled Egg and Okra Column was slated for exhibition at the West Dallas art gallery Ex Ovo before the show was canceled.

True to its name, the 17-foot piece depicts stacked deviled eggs and pickled okra. Johnson says she’s been thinking and working on the piece since her move from New York to Dallas, closer to her family and her southern past. Cast in resin, the forms span the height of the vestibule space.

The second “Nasher Windows” installment will spotlight Dallas native Xxavier Edward Carter and will be on view May 29-June 3. The work is Start Livin’ in the New World, described as a “collaged ‘tapestry’ of paper receipts and the flotsam and jetsam of consumer culture, all bound together and suspended from a magnolia branch.” It’s the newest in a series he’s been working on for the past two years.

The title of the piece references the similarly named song by the Roots. And its contents echo the song’s lyrics, “It ain’t nowhere to run, it ain’t hardly nowhere to hide,” at a time when Carter says communities of color are being hit harder than others by a crisis that’s made worse by consumerism.

For future installments, the Nasher has shortlisted eight proposals including ones from Leslie Martinez, Vince Jones and Tierra Firme, which is a collaboration between artists Analise Minjarez and Sarita Westrup.

Keep your eyes peeled for future artists on the Nasher’s social media channels: Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.