Ivy Gallery Corrals Texas Talent for State Fair Debut

The tiny neighborhood of Exposition Park, nestled across the street from the main entrance to Fair Park, has a long and storied history as a cool place for cool, artistic people and their various projects and spaces. Its residents have always been a who’s-who of just about every scene around town. It has also been the home of many iconic Dallas institutions, such as 500X Gallery, Angstrom Gallery, Bar of Soap, Pizza Lounge and Amsterdam Bar. While those places are now long gone, a new crop of future classics has recently emerged to reshape the neighborhood for the better.

Ivy Gallery, headed by Brie Milam, is the latest addition to the area’s art gallery roster. The gallery, located in a small building covered in ivy (duh) right off Parry Avenue, was once home to the revival of Oliver Françoise Gallery. You could almost miss it as you walk by, but Milam's space has an array of cute and eye-catching signage that makes you look twice.

The gallery owner grew up in North Dallas; she left the city for a while to go to college in Southern California but was drawn back after graduating. Like most of us, she didn’t really know what she wanted to do after college, so she tried various roles, from HR professional to stressed-out executive assistant. As it turns out, that high-stress environment led her to her real passion, which she indulged in at every spare moment.

“My journey with painting has been about health and wellness, it was my escape from work stress," she says. "You have to be in the moment as you are creating art, it’s a true meditation.”
Watercolor is her preferred medium, and her continuous practice helped her build her skills to a level that allowed her to start teaching others to paint via private lessons and public workshops. Milam has also shown her work. Her last show, Untamed Landscapes, was a collection of watercolor landscapes inspired by the often overlooked natural beauty of North Texas and was the catalyst for Ivy Gallery.

“Having to do the hard work of setting up and taking down all of my pieces made me realize that I just wanted a space just for myself and the people I want to show and teach," she says.

Eventually, she was able to find the space in Expo Park and everything started to come together.

Milam has a clear vision for the future of Ivy Gallery and its place in the neighborhood. She wants mainly to showcase Texas-based artists.

“I feel like a lot of galleries focus on aesthetics over regionality, and I just really want to support the artists that are here and give them a space where they can be recognized,” she says.

She’s certainly right to point out that many Texas-based artists don’t get the credit they deserve, especially those from North Texas. Our neck of the woods is not always deemed a world-renowned hotspot for arts and culture, but with people like Milam, Europeans might shed the belief that we ride horses to work or spend our weekends doing color studies of steak dinners. As for Expo Park, Milam hopes to fill in the gaps.

“I feel like everyone has a specific niche here, and I want my niche to be a multifunctional space," she says. "I want to have solo shows, group shows, painting classes, sculpture artists, textile artists, mediation classes, sound baths, basically everything you can think of."

This isn’t going to be the kind of gallery you hesitate to enter out of fear of judgment that you aren’t cool enough or rich enough to be there. Milam wants to create a real sense of community and inclusivity, with art and wellness being the medium of connection. In her words, Ivy Gallery will be a “mind, body and soul creative space,” and it's meant to be that for everyone who stops by. She hopes to represent a diverse array of artists and creatives with unique, unheard perspectives. She’s a real equal opportunity gallerist, if you will. Milam says it’s not about selling as much art as she can; it’s about her mission.

Her upcoming, and first-ever, pop-up event truly embodies all these core values. Just Texas Things is inspired by the good old State Fair of Texas, which, along with the pop-up, will be going on right across the street for the next three-plus weeks. Everyone who will inevitably pass by Ivy Gallery on their way to and from the fair is sure to be in the mood for some Texasmaxxing.

Just Texas Things will offer multiple Texas artists and their Texas-themed art, along with a Western-inspired vintage clothing rack to peruse and a few other gems. All other details are a surprise that we simply cannot disclose, so you will just have to go check it out for yourself. If you love Texas, you will not be disappointed.

Just Texas Things opening reception is 5–9 p.m., Thursday, Sept. 26, and will run Sept. 27 – Oct. 20. The gallery is at 3715 Parry Ave. You can keep up with Brie Milam on Instagram @ivy___gallery, and on her website ivy-gallery.com.