5 North Texas artists to know right now

Spend time contemplating a work of art and you’ll get a brief glimpse into the mind and soul of its creator. Sometimes the message behind a piece rings loud and clear; other times interpretation is squarely in the eye of the beholder. All over Dallas-Fort Worth, artists thrive in multiple disciplines and mediums, making our lives more interesting — and often more beautiful — in the process. Here, we highlight five artists working in North Texas whom you need to know.

Felicia Jordan-Jones

As a mixed-media artist, Felicia Jordan-Jones utilizes any medium she can to get her point across. Currently, the Booker T. Washington graduate is busy exploring a mix of traditional fiber techniques and the infinite possibilities of 3D printing. You can view her piece Things She Could Not Say on display at the Meadows Gallery in the the Patterson-Appleton Arts Center in Denton through May 4.

“I’m creating art to give a voice to the voiceless. I am telling Black stories while exploring the universality that connects us all,” she says. “I would not be where I am today if I did not have art. I, like a lot of people, tend to fail at expressing myself adequately with words. But being able to be a maker like my parents and create these objects that give strength to myself and those who see it means the world to me.” Follow her on Instagram at @krystal_galeart.

William Atkinson

Multimedia collage artist William Atkinson’s first canvas was the city of Los Angeles, where he created street art under the pseudonym Insurgency Inc. In the 10-plus years of his career since then, he’s started using his real name on works that are now being featured in esteemed galleries around the world.

“Expressionism, recontextualization of imagery and inclusion of text are used to create public discourse about how we, as society and individuals, process information and make decisions,” he says. “My art has remained loud and subversive, keeping true to my initial form of expression. [When] I started in street art, I truly worked alone and at night. Everything I did was trial and error. There was a lot of experimentation and then self-assessment as to what worked or felt right.”

Today, even when Atkinson works on a large-scale composition in his studio, he still retains some of the frenzied energy that defined his street art during those early days in L.A., devoting just a single session to the creation of each work in order to capture the genuine emotion of the moment. Follow him on Instagram at @william.atkinson.art.

Mariell Guzman

Taking an abstract and surrealistic approach, Mariell Guzman creates art that is heavily influenced by nature and her bicultural upbringing. She works in a variety of mediums, including painting, sculpture, digital art and screenprinting. Guzman has a permanent art installation in the immersive, trippy world of Meow Wolf in Grapevine, along with large-scale murals all over North Texas, including Deep Ellum, the Bishop Arts District and Fort Worth.

“Through vibrant and surrealistic compositions, I delve into themes of identity exploration and the struggles of adaptation. I bring to life imagined ecosystems characterized by chaos and spontaneity, mirroring the transformative journey of being an immigrant,” she says. “Art acts as a healing force, reestablishing my bond with the playful and imaginative spirit of my inner child, while also enabling me to connect with communities in a powerful and meaningful way.” Follow her on Instagram at @mariellguzman.

Darryl Ratcliff

Darryl Ratcliff uses his creativity to address social issues and work with communities in a medium known as social practice art, which brings people together in conversation, debate and other forms of social interaction. His art is collaborative and transdisciplinary, and always geared toward justice. Though also a trained painter and arts writer for The Dallas Morning News, his work can be sometimes less tangible.

“I joke that I can go from a janitor to an urban planner to a PR person to a poet in the same day working on a project,” he says. “The work is about sculpting a community, and communities are complex.” His current project is a permanent sculpture for the city of Fort Worth in the Como community along Horne Street, an area determined to be an impactful place for public art.

“Art can save lives, and it has saved my life and the lives of many people I know. It gives us the practice of creating our own lives, and exploring our ideas and identities,” Ratcliff says. “It helps create healthy communities, improves mental health, creates economies, and encourages democracy and civic engagement.” Follow him on Instagram at @thekingfish08.

Erica Felicella

Though multidisciplinary artist Erica Felicella works in photography, new media and site-specific installations, her work as a performance artist sets her apart. Her first endurance performance live work was called Visible Shell, which she says changed her life.

“Prior to that, I had almost solely worked in the discipline of photography. The body as a vessel was an experience that I could never fully express, other than an energy shared between myself and the audience engagement, whether it be one person or many at the same time,” she says. “I had the opportunity to take my conceptual work off the wall and into the physical plane of reality. It was like eating your first cookie as a child. After that, you could never stop climbing the counters to get to the cookie jar.” She admits that performance or live art can be an enigma to those viewing it, but for her, it’s all about being in the moment and creating a shared experience that is rarely scripted, but always temporal and ephemeral.

“What you are witnessing can never be reproduced in the same manner again, even if repeated, because it is created by an exact improvised moment in time,” Felicella says. “Over the years, I have had the extreme honor to evoke a visceral response to my work, whether it be good or bad, happy or sad. A moment of feeling was shared. Is that not the reason in the first place?” Follow her on Instagram at @felicella.