Peter Halley’s ‘Cell Grids’ on Display at Dallas Contemporary in Texas

Residents of and visitors to Texas looking for global inspiration should head over to Dallas Contemporary, where four exhibitions by different artists from around the world are simul­taneously opening this month. There is Shilpa Gupta from Mumbai, India, Russia’s Ilya & Emilia Kabakov, and Mexican-born, Montreal-based Renata Morales. The fourth is New Yorker Peter Halley, whose “Cell Grids” is the neo-conceptualist’s first exhibit at this institution. The 18 large-scale works, four making their public debut, continue his exploration into the organization of social space in the digital era, using the element he calls “cells,” arrayed in syncopated grids of multiple bolted-together canvases coated in acrylic, fluorescent, and textured Roll-a-Tex paints. Reaching as high as 7 feet, the pieces’ luminous colors coupled with their rough surfaces, Dallas Contemporary executive director Peter Doroshenko says, “create a tension between attraction and repulsion.”