Conduit Gallery is pleased to present Safety in Numbers, a new body of work by Dallas-based painter Michael Frank Blair. The exhibition marks Blair's second solo presentation of new work with the gallery.

Working on vertical canvases roughly five feet by three feet, Blair explores painterly space through gestural mark-making and deliberate compositional play. His paintings conjure sports fields and parking lots, shields and tapestries, eye spots and windows, using these references not as subjects but as pressure points, forcing roundness against flatness and depth against surface. That the works carry titles like Pizza Bowl, Hurling Pitch, and Cobh tells you something about how Blair moves through his practice, with seriousness and a light touch in equal measure. The rigor is evident, but it never announces itself.

Blair's practice is also in dialogue with the late anthropologist Alfred Gell, whose writings on art and magic share a common thread, reverence for the threshold between what is known and what remains out of reach. Created in close quarters, the works in this exhibition carry a social quality. Installed together, they speak to one another, each made more complete by the presence of the others.

Michael Frank Blair's work has previously been exhibited at the Fort Worth Community Arts Center; Rudolf Blume Gallery, Houston, TX; Oak Cliff Cultural Center, Dallas, TX; Missouri State University, Springfield, MO among others. Michael earned an MA in Art History (2013) and an MFA (2012) in Painting and Drawing from the University of North Texas. He has taught Art Criticism and Theory at Texas Christian University since 2013.

Artists in this Exhibition

Artist Video