Richard Rezac

The seven sculptures and three drawings in Richard Rezac’s keen, subtle show at James Harris Gallery reward close attention — and stay in one’s mind well after leaving the exhibition.

Rezac has an architectural sensibility, both in that building materials like moldings, knobs and panels appear in his work, but also, more intrinsically, in that each sculpture is constructed from smaller modules built up to organize space in a certain way (as opposed to, say, the carving or casting of a single main form in traditional sculpture).

His method is to begin with a drawing as the basis for each sculpture. Two of the sculptures here, Elgin, abridged and Untitled (23-07), are shown along with their associated drawings, which allows for a special insight into the artist’s visual thinking. The precise, meticulous drawings lay out a plan of line, shape and color, to which the sculptures add mass, texture and volume. Seeing how the work is generated helps one understand its structure.

However, since sculpture, unlike architecture, is free to ignore functional considerations, Rezac is also free to exercise a sense of play, even whimsy. (What, for instance, are all those knobs doing on the front of Marking? And what governs the arrangement of the aluminum tubes in Untitled (23-07)? I’m not sure, but it looks like they are having fun.)

Aside from connection to architecture, the drawings themselves, with their combination of deliberate discipline and free-ranging imagination, remind me of Russian artists from the last century such as El Lissitzky or Iakov Chernikhov, whose drawings showed a similar fusion of the strict and the wild. For his part, Rezac has cited the baroque architect Francesco Borromini (who also influenced Richard Serra) as a model of spatial imagination.

Rezac’s work is widely recognized nationally, but this is his first solo show in Dallas, which we owe to the James Harris Gallery’s fortuitous relocation here from Seattle in fall 2023. This kind of serious, ambitious show takes place more and more often in Dallas these days, which is cause for satisfaction.

Details

Richard Rezac’s “Abridged” continues through Feb. 22 at James Harris Gallery, 4829 Gretna St., No. 102, Dallas. Free. Open Wednesday through Saturday from 11:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. and by appointment. 214-272-8427, jamesharrisgallery.com.