Visual Arts

The kaleidoscope of identities represented in "World View" at the Dallas Contemporary upends the old stereotype of the American heartland as homogeneous and uptight at the same time it tweaks the newer conventions of political correctness.

Paul Abbott

Donna Huanca's textile Cuban Rebels, 1967 is on exhibit at the Dallas Contemporary through Aug. 18.

Most of the nine artists in the show come from Texas, with one from New Mexico and another from California. The ethnic makeup is as full-throttle diverse as the art is cheeky and mordant.

Hailing from Prairie View, Lauren Kelley adds dark dun clay to the thighs, breasts and lips of black Barbie dolls. In the photograph Backside Float, a big-bottomed glamour doll floats upside down in a pool. Fleshy brown legs emerge from a bright pink one-piece that is set off from a background of billiard green. In the stop-animation video Big Gurl, zaftig black Barbies sit next to loquacious Spanish-speaking Latinas in the waiting room of an ob-gyn.

Houston-based Soody Sharifi's Stairway to Heaven (She/He Series) is a lyrical photograph of two Muslim teenagers stealing kisses on a freestanding concrete staircase. The coiling stairs rest upright in a blasted building, making bleak beauty out of ruin and stealthy adolescence.

In the adjacent gallery, Donna Huanca's textile in variegated green hangs across from Demetrius Oliver's large digital photos and Sasha Dela's garage-like installation of boxes.

The work of these three Houston residents creates a cacophony of ideas and form.

In Ms. Huanca's Cuban Rebels, 1967, eight fatigue-wearing men sit around stewpots on campfires in the wild. Made from bits of found fabric, her textile brings to mind the rumple-surfaced felt quilts of Trenton Doyle Hancock. Mr. Oliver's Lump is a close-up photograph of a black man's mouth bearing a piece of coal.

Reminiscent of the work of Jessica Stockholder, Ms. Dela's Stereo Box Assembly is a three-tiered installation of empty product boxes that she found along the streets of a tony Houston neighborhood. Stacked in black wire shelves, the installation speaks to the consumerism that unites us all. Americans love their stuff.

Charissa N. Terranova is a Dallas freelance writer.

"World View: Diverse Artists' Approaches" continues through Aug. 18 at the Dallas Contemporary, 2801 Swiss Ave. Hours: 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesdays through Saturdays. Free. 214-821- 2522, www.thecontemporary.net.