In Dallas-based sculptor Ken Womack’s hands, ordinary objects get a surrealist twist. Whether it be oversized album covers, six-foot cassette tapes, giant Pop-Tarts, or Texas toast, the artist blows up pop culture iconography, resulting in work that literally pops off the walls.
And, on January 15, he’ll be unveiling yet another amusing work entitled “The Broloroid 2,” at the custom furniture store Scout Design Studio in the Design District. Scout may seem to be an unusual venue for a serious artist, but it perfectly matches Womack’s sense of humor. After fellow artist Donald Robertson (aka Drawbertson) recommended he check out the space in 2023, Womack found Scout was the perfect match for his particular brand of whimsy.
“I owe Donald a huge debt, because he’s the one who recommended Scout,” Womack tells PaperCity. “The gallery thing has changed so much — I’d approached different galleries in town and just had not a lot of traction. Donald has a studio across the hall from me at Mockingbird Station, and he said I should check them out. It was right after I did the Spectrum Art Fair in Miami, and they gave me an artist in residency the following spring, and I had a full room of my work for the first time. It was a kind of proof of concept.”
One of Dallas artist Ken Womack’s most iconic pieces is a giant 3-D Texas-shaped Texas toast topped with butter. (Courtesy)
Ken Womack’s Journey From Advertising to Artmaking
Indeed, the Dallas artist ended up selling the first iteration of one of his most iconic pieces (a giant 3-D Texas-shaped Texas toast topped with butter) to Park House shortly afterwards. The sly humor and whimsy of that paint-on-plywood piece are inherent in all of the artist’s work. Womack honed his exploration of colorful, familiar objects over years spent as an art director. A Houston native, he graduated from the University of Texas at Austin with a degree in studio arts before “stumbling into” advertising, a career he continues to work in.
“I found out that being an art director was the perfect match for my skill set — the conceptual side and the design aspect. I designed logos and ad campaigns. I got to Dallas around 1990 for Tracy Locke and got a job working on Pepsi and grew up as an art director.”
Eventually, he opened his own firm named J Agency after “shift option J” on the keyboard, which he ran until selling it in 2023. Though he still runs a two-man shop called The Agency Hack, he decided it was time to indulge in his artmaking process. One of his very first pieces — a giant boombox entitled “Bum Rush the Show” (a nod to the Spike Lee film Do the Right Thing) — drew immediate enthusiasm. It turns out his years translating concepts into eye-catching images gave Womack a shortcut to connect with an artistic audience accustomed to the pairing of art and commerce.
“Pretty much my worldview is formed by capitalist enterprises — selling people things they don’t need or want,” Womack laughs. “A lot of the work that I do is similar to the methodology you use in an ad to create a communication that connects with people. It’s no surprise that a lot of the work references the way we sell to each other. The over-the-top nature of the finishes of the piece sort of suggests the nature of selling. I have a piece that looks like one of those chattering teeth that’s about how media isn’t the way it was when we were growing up, it’s now entertainment and flat-out propaganda.”
One of Ken Womack’s very first pieces — a giant boombox entitled “Bum Rush the Show” (a nod to the Spike Lee film Do the Right Thing). (Courtesy)
The Inspiration Behind “The Broloroid 2”
And his newest piece, ‘The Broloroid 2,’ continues that focus in the slyest of ways. A giant Polaroid camera sculpture with a TV screen sticking out to “capture” onlookers, the piece serves both as a “selfie machine” and a social experiment, according to Womack.
“You watch how people react to seeing themselves, which in a lot of ways is very indicative of this self-absorbed culture we’ve manifested in these modern times. The thing that’s interesting to me about my own work is that a lot of times there’s a protest element to it. There’s nobody doing anything like what I’m doing. I’m just making big objects, but they always have a story behind them or some kind of purpose.”
As collectors, including the Bass family and the CEO of Roc Nation, snap up his work, Womack feels his vision is validated. And, as he continues to super-size pieces like an eight-foot-long license plate and a seven-foot mix tape, he’s also focused on maximizing his opportunities, including his first solo show, “Obsessed,” at the Museum of the Southwest in Midland, opening summer 2026. Currently working on an animated series about the blues in Deep Ellum alongside illustrator Arthur James, Womack is hoping higher-profile projects like these will help him ultimately move his work into the public sphere.
“I have some monumental sculpture concepts, things with the scope of (Anish Kapoor’s) ‘Cloud Gate.’ That’s a whole vein I’m working through right now,” he says. “In 2026, my goal is to really attract the attention of the Crystal Bridges of the world and create a body of work that disrupts that space.”
“The Broloroid 2” interactive work debuts January 15 from 4 pm to 6 pm at Scout Design Studio, 155 Howell. RSVP here.