Conduit Gallery is honored to announce a solo exhibition of paintings by Dallas-based artist Michael Frank Blair.

Tall, soft-spoken, almost preternaturally unassuming, and multi-talented, Michael Frank Blair conveys the coolness that one might only aspire to. His paintings are as cool as his persona, in a dynamic way. They belie the active mind and disciplined approach behind his reserve. Working predominantly on medium and large-scale canvases, with sophisticated color sense, Blair’s paintings feel at first rooted in Abstract Expressionism. With time, something more representational reveals itself as the viewer sits with his work long enough to appreciate his play with space and recognize allusions to cityscapes and landscapes perhaps viewed from above. The sense of balance Blair achieves in his composition is not accidental; a lot of thinking, observation, and an understanding of formal qualities of painting is evident.

Blair’s work is concerned with the materiality of imagery and space specifically, making work that is not reducible to the concerns of representation or illustrative imagery. He notes of his paintings, “They, all in their own ways, leverage style against material, material against composition, depth against surface, and order against play, to create surfaces that reframe the facts and illusions of pictorial space in a fresh way.”

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.