Galleri Urbane, located in the Design District of Dallas, Texas, is a contemporary art gallery, founded in Silver City, New Mexico, in 2000. Moving the business from the front rooms of their Victorian home in New Mexico, owners Ree and Jason Willaford first established permanent roots in a 100-year-old adobe building in the Central Marfa Historic District in Texas in 2002. In 2009, the Dallas location opened where the gallery remains today. After operating there for 17 years, the Marfa space officially closed its doors in 2019.
Since its founding, Galleri Urbane has advocated for the careers of contemporary, emerging and mid-career artists from across the United States and abroad, now representing more than 20 artists. These painters, sculptors, photographers, mixed- media artists, and conceptual artists share a the mission to innovate their media beyond traditional applications and conventions. These various approaches to art fuel the gallery in solo and group exhibitions every seven weeks — about eight shows each year. Two exhibitions run concurrently and works by gallery artists rotate in the Viewing Room, adjacent to the two main galleries. Galleri Urbane continues to maintain relationships with artists, collectors, curators, and critics internationally after more than 20 years.
From the early days of the gallery in the American West, beginning with Jason Willaford’s solo exhibition of paintings, Belly of the Cowgirl and pop-ups in Marfa during the The Chinati Foundation/La Fundación Chinati Weekend, the Urbane aesthetic remains just as inventive and is not defined by the business it exists in.