For decades a cradle of the Dallas art scene, the Exposition Park neighborhood, located between Fair Park and Deep Ellum, has gone through generational turnover in recent years, with the departure of longtime anchors such as 500X Gallery and the Reading Room, and the former properties of art-friendly landlord David Gibson changing hands.
Now August Real Estate, who took over 17 of Gibson’s properties, is staking a claim as enlightened cultural patrons, commissioning a 24-foot mural from Mexico City-born, Dallas-based painter Francisco Moreno to welcome visitors to the Expo Park Lofts at 4100 Commerce St.
The painting’s illusionistic space subtly connects to the real space of the nearly century-old building’s lobby, with gentle natural light and polished concrete floors serving as a stage on which a roster of notable figures build creative works in both high- and low-tech media. Those represented include local artists and architects, as well as young students, angels, a deer, an eagle and a skeleton.
Titled The Practitioners, Moreno’s work fulfills one of the most ancient purposes of public art — to tell the public its collective story, or what Ezra Pound called “the tale of the tribe” — and preserves a chapter of Dallas art history for future generations. Moreno’s style, which weaves together pre-Columbian, Baroque and contemporary themes with rare fluency, aptly captures how local and global elements fuse in the city’s art.
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The Practitioners mural reveal party will be Saturday, Sept. 13, from 2 to 5 p.m. at 4100 Commerce St., Dallas. Free.
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