With a celebrated local history of over 40 years, most recently on Hi Line Drive in the Design District and before that in Deep Ellum, Conduit Gallery has become one of the most established galleries in town and a bulwark of the Dallas art scene. “When I started Conduit, Dallas thought art was impressionism,” says founder Nancy Whitenack. “Since then, we’ve watched a very healthy contemporary art scene develop.”
Whitenack started Conduit after teaching in Dallas ISD for 13 years. “By the end, I was ready for a change,” she says. “I moved into a warehouse and essentially taught myself. I remember sitting upstairs by a heater that first winter, trying to come up with a name. Conduit made sense: something that connects artists’ work to the public.”
At the same time, the gallery has consistently steered its own course, embracing unorthodox and unconventional work in preference to ephemeral trends. More than any particular style or school, this determination to go one’s own way is a common thread among the gallery’s 36 artists, of whom 28 are displaying work in the shows that open its new location.
The new space, directly in front of the Trinity River levees and the miles of open space behind them, lends a feeling of fresh air to the ambient surroundings. That feeling continues, figuratively speaking, on entering the gallery, which is situated across the hall from fellow stalwart Cris Worley, in the high-ceilinged space that formerly housed the late, lamented Holly Johnson Gallery.
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Compared to the old space on Hi Line, the new gallery includes more small walls that allow for presenting a single artwork on its own, says gallery director Danette Dufilho, who has been at Conduit since it was on Main Street above the Undermain Theatre.
Kirk Hayes’ 2025 oil-on-signboard work “The Self Mocking Painting” features an unassuming figure rendered in a blocky, simplified style, with heavy helpings of a fleshy pink that recalls Philip Guston and Carroll Dunham.
Conduit Gallery
Hung in the front rooms are seven paintings on signboard by Kirk Hayes of Fort Worth, a Conduit artist since 1997. Most of these works portray an unassuming figure rendered in a blocky, simplified style, with heavy helpings of a fleshy pink that recall Philip Guston and Carroll Dunham.
Kirk Hayes’ 2025 oil-on-signboard work “Edge Sitting in Pink” is featured in the exhibition at Conduit Gallery.
Conduit Gallery
Bald, in button-down shirt and trousers, and with a face covered in Band-Aids, Hayes’ anti-hero busies himself with various tasks: arguing with his shadow, stabbing a knife into the space between his fingers, wearing a plaster “death mask” or sitting on the edge of a black void. Each painting’s title, such as The Self Mocking Painting and What I Desire I No Longer Believe, is handwritten across the top, providing a further interpretive clue.
Like the stories of a great stand-up comedian or songwriter, Hayes’ episodes can elicit a range of responses from different perspectives, whether identification with the hapless protagonist or relief not to be in his shoes. The biggest strength of Hayes’ work, though, is his astounding use of trompe l’oeil, a French term for the optical illusion that here makes it hard to believe the masking tape and plywood on Hayes’ surfaces are not what they seem (they are, in fact, made of paint).
The physical thickness of Hayes’ paintings (both the paint itself, and the board underneath) gives them a considerable visual weight. That, along with the trompe l’oeil technique, creates an overall enigmatic aura, as if a viewer’s mind isn’t quite sure how to categorize the piece.
Robert Jessup’s 2025 acrylic-on-canvas work “Robinwood 58” is included in Conduit Gallery’s “Phase Four” exhibition.
Conduit Gallery
In the spaces toward the rear of the gallery is “Phase Four,” an assortment of works in which 27 of Conduit’s other artists are represented. Looking along the rows of artworks, I could sense the passage of time. I could hardly believe how many years I’ve been coming to Conduit (though still less than half the gallery’s life so far), or how long many of the artists have been with the gallery.
Among the pieces in “Phase Four” is a large painting from the Robinwood series of Robert Jessup, who has had 19 solo shows at Conduit since 1993 and is one of four artists to have been with Conduit since its beginning. There is also an abstract work by Marcelyn McNeil (five solo shows at Conduit since 2011), as well as works by Annabel Daou and James Sullivan, both of whom had work in Conduit’s first show at Hi Line Drive in 2002.
Such long-term commitments between artist and gallery, never to be taken for granted, allow a viewer’s eye to develop over time — to really get to know an artist’s work in a way that any single exhibition can’t accomplish. Although a visual artwork can be taken in all at once, as opposed to, say, a novel or symphony, it still encodes the passage of time, both in the hours spent making it and the years of experience that shape its creator’s mind. Nothing demonstrates this better than repeatedly coming back to an artist’s work over a period of years.
Ultimately, such consistency is grounded in the solidity of the gallerists who shape Conduit’s vision. “It’s always been a team effort, from curating and exhibition design to cleaning, packing and shipping,” says Dufilho, adding that the team now includes a “young, whip-smart” new associate, Karina Coscia Cedillo — one of numerous reasons to be optimistic about Conduit’s next 40 years.
Marcelyn McNeil’s 2025 oil-on-canvas work “Woodsy with Green” is included in the “Phase Four” exhibition at Conduit Gallery.
Conduit Gallery
Details
“Kirk Hayes: New Paintings” and “Phase Four” continue through Feb. 14 at Conduit Gallery’s new location, 1845 E. Levee St., Suite 100, Dallas. Free. Open Tuesday through Saturday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. 214-939-0064. conduitgallery.com.
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