Visual Arts

Dunn and Brown Contemporary unveiled its handsomely reconfigured galleries Friday, showing them off to collectors and other invited guests at a reception for a pair of new exhibitions by two artists with Texas ties.

Co-owners Talley Dunn and Lisa Brown are celebrating the eighth anniversary of Dunn and Brown Contemporary, which pulled off the remarkable: It managed to reconfigure its existing space without closing either of its light, airy exhibition rooms.

Natalie Caudill / DMN

Artist Gary Panter with one of his works at Dunn and Brown Contemporary

Ms. Dunn and Ms. Brown own the building at 5020 Tracy St. in Dallas, just off the Katy Trail, or as Ms. Brown puts it, "Where Uptown ends."

The renovation took six weeks and covered "every inch" of both galleries, says Ms. Brown, who notes they were able to do the project without adding to their 10,000 square feet.

The Main Gallery now features seven large-scale paintings by Texas artist Vernon Fisher, while the Project Gallery shows off the cartoonlike creations of New York artist Gary Panter, who's originally from Sulphur Springs and who once designed the set for Pee Wee's Playhouse.

And there's an added bonus to the renovation: Those walking in are treated to a reconfigured entrance that welcomes visitors with a new display of etchings by Picasso.

"The artists are thrilled," says Ms. Brown. "We handle internationally known artists and bring in so many big museum groups from all over the country. By removing the interior doors, we've allowed artists to do more complicated installations, because we have a clean slate available to them."

Ms. Dunn says Dunn and Brown began on a shoestring eight years ago and has blossomed into an exhibition company that works with a stable of 25 artists. Some of Dunn and Brown's artists recently showed their work in Scotland in an exhibition that moved on to Rotterdam in the Netherlands. Dunn and Brown has an upcoming art fair in Miami and in June finished one in Basel, Switzerland.

"No other gallery in the region does what we do," says Ms. Dunn.

The renovation, she says, better "reflects our business and how we operate. What's happened is, we've brought everything together."