The inaugural exhibition of the newly formed Warehouse Dallas Art Foundation offers a glimpse at two collections—The Rachofsky Collection, created over the past 40 years, and the Hartland & Mackie Family / Labora Collection, developed more recently over the last decade. The two collections overlap and diverge in inspiration, content, and style, yet are nuanced enough to reflect different points of view. This first look, as it were, is our opening chapter as we explore the art of our times. As the exhibition unfolds, each gallery explores a theme or artist central to both collections. A number of galleries feature in-depth explorations of three central themes in contemporary art: the state of abstract painting, the reemergence of a surrealist sensibility, and a rebellious challenge to traditional Modernist sculpture. The show also includes several galleries that center on dialogues between two artists. These pairings set up a series of conversations between the two collections, as well as among artists of different generations who share a creative inquiry into themes like the figure, science, poetry, fragmentation, and the very nature of painting itself. Rashid Johnson, an artist collected in depth by the Hartland & Mackie Family / Labora Collection, has made a selection of historical Japanese, Italian, and Korean works from The Rachofsky Collection that form a conversation with his own work. This “exhibition within the exhibition” shows Johnson’s deep engagement with art history and demonstrates an ethos that transcends historical eras and geographic boundaries. Fittingly, the exhibition begins with a large-scale work by Howardena Pindell, co-owned by both collections, that is inspired by a Claude Monet waterlily painting. Pindell is a historically important artist who until recently was wildly under-appreciated. Made when the artist was in her late 70s, the work is in direct dialogue with the past as it looks for exciting new potential in the realm of abstract painting. In many ways, Pindell’s work embodies the spirit of the exhibition—and much of the work in it—with its deep appreciation for the gravity of history, while laying the groundwork for future explorations.

In 2022, The Warehouse launched the WAREHOUSE:01 project, an annual exhibition of a single artist whose work we are compelled to view in more depth. The project offers an artist the opportunity to select the gallery (or galleries) for their work at The Warehouse, and to experiment with the display and creation of work specifically for the space. In our third iteration, British artist Francesca Mollett has selected the large central gallery to install nine of her paintings, six of which were created for the exhibition. Poikilos takes the form of a triptych, a new format for the artist that the large gallery gave Mollet the opportunity to explore. A master with both color and composition, each of her canvases possess a complex internal color palette and unique compositional sensibility. Though many of Mollett’s works give the sense that they are connected to nature, the paintings in Elsewhere feel decidedly structured, as if they were built on the surface, brushstroke by brushstroke. Mollett is inspired by a full range of experiences, from visual observations to literary sources, and the space within her paintings is both physical and poetic. The surfaces in her work shift, torque, and vibrate with energy. As an artist dedicated to the ever-evolving legacy of abstraction, Mollett’s work does not exist in opposition to imagery and representation, but as a vibrating membrane between these two modes of understanding. This exhibition provides an intimate look into this young artist’s singular approach to abstraction.