Jessica Fuentes reviews the Armory and recaps on the Texas voices featured at the Fair and wrote about Michelle Cortez Gonzales and Tamara Johnson.
The Focus section included two Texas galleries: Keijsers Koning of Dallas and Martha’s from Austin, both of which featured Texas artists. Just two weeks before the fair’s opening when one gallery dropped out of the section, Keijsers Koning was invited to exhibit. The gallery brought works by Dallas-based sculptor Tamara Johnson and Fort Worth-based interdisciplinary artist Michelle Cortez Gonzales.
Works by Tamara Johnson on view in the Keijsers Koning booth at The Armory Show, 2025
Johnson exhibited hyperrealistic works from across her oeuvre, including a seeming chain-link fence gate (made from PVC pipe, rope, resin, and other materials), a cast pewter saltine cracker, and a colander (made from hydrocal gypsum, fiberglass, and other materials). Her playful and unexpected sculptures had attendees doing a double-take, particularly Forever Blue Tape #2, a 2023 piece made of Tyvek and gouache, that looked as if the gallerist left a remnant from installing the booth. Cortez Gonzalez’s mixed media paintings incorporate oil paint and lace, sometimes on canvas and other times with the lace as the grounding material. Her layered pieces speak to memory and family history, drawing imagery from old family photographs.
Bart Keijsers Koning told me, “It was important to me to show these two voices because I felt they both embody a story of Southern America that isn’t seen enough on a stage within the art world. Two females dealing with their heritage and presenting a narrative from within the South/Texas.” Glasstire September 2025
