GALLERI URBANE

Gallery 2:

‘still, slow air’
Makenzie Heinemann

Opening reception: February 22nd // 5-7:30pm

Pop Up Exhibition 2025

Galleri Urbane is pleased to announce our first pop up exhibition for 2025, an ongoing initiative to curate exhibitions in a flexible way, introduce new and emerging artists, and cull from the gallery archives to highlight work from represented artists – allowing for dynamic curatorial conversations. Dallas Artist Makenzie Heinemann kicks off the year with her first solo show at Galleri Urbane, ‘still, slow air’. Heinemann was first introduced to Dallas in our 2024 group show, ‘nature is what we see’.

In ‘still, slow air,’ Heinemann incorporates fiber paste onto wood panels, wherein thick layers of texture oscillate. These small scale scenes have a sense of relief, investigating a variety of scenes – fantastical, mundane; exploring the curiousness of nature. “The main inspiration for my work is in landscape, responding to the colors, composition, and the uniquely special aspects of the reference images I use,” says Heinemann.

Following her 2022 MFA show at Florida State University, Heinemann’s work was mainly focused on large raw canvas works, where water, acrylic, and ink were incorporated into multiplying layers. “My large, raw canvas paintings have been likened to animal hides for the way the images appear to come from within their surfaces,” says Heinemann. “Painting on canvas started to feel boring, and the fiber paintings allowed me to work on a surface that offered more challenge.”

Her subject matter shifts between abstraction and representational scenes of quiet moments found in nature, exploring moments of naturalism and instinctual aestheticism. Although her work often is inspired by art historical reference, it remains not strictly representational, “I’m not thinking about meaning when I create the work; I’m searching for the mysterious magnetism I feel in each scene,” says Heinemann.

Makenzie Heinemann is an Arizona-born, Dallas-based visual artist. She completed her MFA in Studio Art at Florida State University and BFA in Painting at Arizona State University. Her work consists of large paintings on raw canvas and smaller works on paper and paper fibers. Recently Heinemann mounted a solo exhibition at Arts Fort Worth. Following her MFA, she participated in the 33oc residency in Toffia, Italy and presented a solo exhibition at the Blue Heron Nature Preserve in Atlanta. In 2017 she won the Eric Fischl Vanguard Award at Phoenix College. Her painting The High Road was selected by guest curator Njideka Akunyili Crosby. Heinemann currently teaches foundational art courses and maintains a studio practice in Junius Heights.

Gallery 1:

Solo Show, ‘Poiesis’
DOnald Martiny

January 11, 2025 – February 15th, 2025

Galleri Urbane is pleased to present Poiesis, a solo exhibition of new work by Donald Martiny. Poiesis, a term of Ancient Greek origin, refers to the process of creation or the bringing of something into existence. It can also refer to the transformative power of human imagination and innovation.

In this first show of 2025, Donald Martiny presents a sequence of paintings informed by particular works of art history that have personally inspired and moved him—specifically Titian’s seminal “Poesie” series. The cycle of six, grand scale paintings, were commissioned by King Philip II of Spain in the mid-1500s, the era of Titian’s most eloquent expression.

Martiny’s affection and affinity with Titian is rooted in the master’s unique ability to capture dynamic movement in his works through his use of loose brushstrokes and expressive application of paint, notably using his bare fingers to apply and blend his paint. “I prefer to paint with my hands because I want the works to embody and exude the quality of being human, of the human directly in the work,” says Martiny.

An additional formal component found in Titian’s Poesie narratives, the banderole, is used as contemporary consideration by Martiny, the echoed forms in stasis, emerging on the studio floor under his paint laden hands. Martiny’s shaped substrates recall the banderole object’s frozen-in-action coiled energy. “I value the idea that the works are highly personal mark-making, such as handprints on the wall of a cave, tracks in the snow, or warm breath tracing in cold air,”says Martiny.

Artists have been exploring beyond the rectangle in the making of shaped paintings throughout the history of art, ranging from Cimabue to Frank Stella. Most typically in this endeavor, artists have built a substrate structure first and then responded by painting it. Martiny flipped the model: “I went a different way. I wanted the act of painting itself to determine the form of the paintings. After much experimentation, I began to paint freely on generous expanses of aluminum. I initially experimented with application tools, then was drawn closer, ultimately painting with my hands. Then I simply cut away the negative areas,” says Martiny. “The form follows the painting, rather than the painting following the form.”

Galleri Urbane in Dallas
2277 Monitor St
Dallas, Tx  75206
432 386 0590
galleriurbane.com