We love Heyd

The Wrong Store and Gallery will be showing a collection of work from Texas artist Heyd Fontenot. The opening is Friday, June 28, 6-9 p.m. at 110 W. Dallas.

The exhibit is a collection of recent works-on-paper and paintings from the artist. These figurative artworks are a utopian mediation. Avoiding professional models, the artist recruits his friends and artistic peers to model for him, over time building a comprehensive portrait of his social circles over the last two decades. Fontenot has often expressed his deep appreciation that people are willing to be a part of his studio practice as such and notes the impossibility of creating the body of work without this display of cooperation. He calls this work a collaboration between himself and his community.

Heyd Fontenot is director of CentralTrak, an international artists’ residency program and exhibition space located in Dallas, Texas.

Whatever medium he chooses, Fontenot usually revisits the themes of sexuality and morality producing joyful and playful works that nonetheless subtly undermine dominant cultural perceptions. In his own words, “If there is a radical nature to sexuality, it lies not in its ability to titillate, but rather in its inherent powers of spiritual transformation.”

Fontenot is an active exhibiting artist who is represented by Conduit Gallery in Dallas and by Inman Gallery in Houston. His work is included in the upcoming Texas Biennial Anniversary Exhibition in Aug/Sept of 2013, as a three-time Texas Biennial artist.