Michelle Mackey

Looking intently at the surface of one of Michelle Mackey’s abstract landscapes, the viewer may find portals leading into the earth itself, feel the unseen forces churning beneath, and trace the unfolding story of the land stretched over the geologic time scale. Mackey’s growing interest in geology and “deep time,” bolstered by a journey to Iceland and an arts residency in Wyoming, is fully evident in her latest body of work, which draws inspiration from Enchanted Rock, the fabled pink granite dome in the Texas Hill Country...

Gravel crunched under my tires as I pulled into the empty lot of the old gas station: neutral gray and abandoned, the front door padlocked under the awning. When I got out of my car, I could almost hear the sound of a Coke bottle landing at my feet with a coded message from Bonnie and Clyde scrawled inside, launched from their speeding vehicle. 

My search for Dallas’ buried history had led me here, the former Barrow gas station in West Dallas, once owned by Clyde’s father. In the 1930s, the exterior would have read Star Service Station, but, as I stood there in October 2012, I saw no signage, no gas pumps, no people. This is the kind of place that inspires my artwork: a structure in between its former and future identities, left abandoned to the elements without plaques or preciousness....

Clyde Barrow’s family once owned a service station in West Dallas, at 1221 Singleton Blvd., in a neighborhood called the Devil’s Back Porch. That structure stood until April, when it was hastily bulldozed before the city’s Landmark Commission could intervene.

Given the long lead times of a monthly magazine, I didn’t know how or whether D Magazine could address the matter. (Although Bethany Erickson wrote about it for our website.) But then an artist who has written for us, Laray Polk, alerted me to the fact that another artist in town, Michelle Mackey, had spent years studying and painting and thinking about the Barrow service station. Which is how I came to find myself in Michelle’s studio back in May, looking at some of her work and talking about how she might do something in the pages of the magazine...

Holly Johnson Gallery in Dallas is pleased to announce the opening of Michelle Mackey: Beyond Measure, an exhibition of new paintings inspired by Enchanted Rock that highlights the relationship between the past and present. A reception for the artist will be held Saturday, November 19th from 5-8 pm. The exhibition continues through February 11...

Holly Johnson Gallery in Dallas is pleased to announce the opening of the exhibition Back & Forth: Celebrating Women on July 21, 2020. Back & Forth commemorates the fifteenth anniversary of the gallery and celebrates the centennial of the 19th amendment. The exhibition will continue through September 26.

Presenting sculpture, installation, paintings, drawings, and photographs, this exhibition highlights the varied creative practices and compelling artworks created by the distinguished women represented by the gallery and invites visitors to consider the centennial milestone in the context of a woman-owned business...

Paint, canvas, watercolors, paper, multi-media collage – these are all familiar components in making art. Michelle Mackey’s joint compound, however, is a bit of a surprise to the uninitiated. Holly Johnson Gallery, 1845 Levee St., No. 100, hosts Mackey’s second show in the venue, Michelle Mackey: Double Take....

52 page fully illustrated exhibition catalogue on the occasion of "Michelle Mackey: Double Take" at Holly Johnson Gallery from May 13 – August 19, 2017. Catalogue includes interview between Michelle Mackey and D. Dominick Lombardi. Interview first appeared in Huffpost Arts, 2015.

Available at the gallery and on Blurb.

Holly Johnson Gallery is pleased to announce the opening of, Michelle Mackey: Double Take, an exhibition of new paintings that explore dream like landscapes in relationship to time and memory. A reception for the artist will be held Saturday, May 13 from 5 to 8 pm...

Behind the scenes with Michelle Mackey...

Abstract art professor teaches from experience...