Katy Trail Art
Photo Credit: Todora Photography LLC
Katy Trail Art partners with Dallas area museums, artists, art collectors and the community at large to expand the role of contemporary art around Dallas.
The Initiative borrows, commissions, and produces world-class art projects on and around the Katy Trail to inspire creativity, spark conversation, encourage self-reflection, challenge assumptions, foster community building, and promote civic ownership of the Katy Trail.
Grow Till Tall - Still Life (2025), by Hidenori Ishii: Katy Trail Art in partnership with the Dallas Museum of Art, located at Knox Street Crossing
Bioluminescent flowers, oversized red tomatoes, colorful mushrooms, and flowing rivers populate the lush ecosystem of Grow Till Tall—Still Life, the debut public art commission by artist Hidenori Ishii. Inspired by the Trinity River in Dallas, the recurring motif of water anchors the mural as a metaphor for life, connection, and time. Drawing upon Claude Monet’s poignant meditation on the surface of water in his Water Lilies series, the expansive space of Grow Till Tall—Still Life similarly oscillates between surface and reflection. The 114-foot-long horizontal composition further transitions from night to day as viewers move from left to right.
Updating the artistic tradition of still life, Ishii reflects on the increasingly blurred lines between nature and the artificial, especially with technological advancements like gene editing. Embedded within are floral patterns also inspired by native Texas plants such as Black-eyed Susan and Adagio Maiden Grass, as well as birds like the Cedar Waxwing and Yellow-rumped Warbler. Along with historical images of the former Missouri-Kansas-Texas (MKT) railroad line on which the trail sits, these elements celebrate the natural biodiversity of the Katy Trail while evoking a deeper connection to place.
Ishii’s initial foray into public art was in 2020 when—during the pandemic with the shuttering of museum and gallery spaces—on construction walls in New York where he lives, Ishii started installing diamond-shaped screenprints he created. This guerilla approach inaugurated his ongoing interest in the potential of public spaces in making art accessible to all.
As the artist notes, “The green geometry of these [construction] walls represents a minimalist gesture toward nature within urban space. They are temporary, yet democratic—covered in graffiti, flyers, and public expression—bearing the life of the city before eventually disappearing once construction is complete.” In Grow Till Tall—Still Life, the construction wall alongside the Katy Trail becomes a canvas for transformation, merging the artist’s vision with the specific historic and cultural context of Dallas.
About the Artist: Hidenori Ishii, born in Yonezawa, Japan, is a New York-based artist who considers social, environmental, and urban landscapes and works at the intersection of painting, print, and installation. Ishii received his MFA in Fine Arts at the Maryland Institute College of Art in Baltimore; and his BFA in Fine Arts at the College of Visual and Performing Arts at George Mason University, Fairfax, Virginia. Among his awards and distinctions, Ishii was a recipient of the Henry Walters Travel Fellowship to Iceland.
A special thank you to Erin Cluley Gallery and Trammell Crow Company for making this commission possible.
Gone (2022), by Carolyn Salas, located south of Knox/Armstrong entrances
Carolyn Salas’ sculpture Gone explores the complex relationship between abstraction, narrative, and feminine identity. Drawing from both ancient and modern influences, Salas' work simplifies the human form, from a lexicon of symbols and inspired by early Egyptian carvings. Her sculptures are both airy and commanding, constructed from multiple flat components that overlap and interlock, giving each piece depth and substance while their stark white surfaces allow them to subtly disappear into the surrounding space. This play between presence and absence invites viewers to consider the relationship between form and space in a dynamic, ever-changing way.
At the heart of Gone is Salas’ exploration of the symbolic power of the human body. This tension between strength and fragility reflects the dualities of feminine identity—softness and power, vulnerability and resilience. The work serves as a visual metaphor for womanhood as a precarious balancing act, with its fragile, shifting equilibrium suggesting the complexities and contradictions that define it.
Salas’ process is integral to the meaning behind her sculptures. Each piece begins as a hand-cut maquette made of foam core before being translated into larger metal forms that retain the spontaneous energy of her handwork. The angular, bent shapes of the final sculptures demonstrate an ongoing dialogue between intention and unpredictability. This method—combining sharp, flat elements with organic, flowing curves—mirrors the central theme of Gone: the fragility of time and the delicate tension between stability and the precarious nature of existence. By merging the historical with the contemporary, Salas’ work engages with the timeless and the fleeting, offering a profound reflection on the balance of feminine identity in an ever-evolving world.
About the Artist: Carolyn Salas was born in Hollywood, CA. She earned a BFA in sculpture from the College of Santa Fe and an MFA from Hunter College. She has attended residencies at the Abrons Art Center A.I.R. Space Program and The NARS Foundation, New York, NY; Blue Mountain Center, Blue Mountain Lake, NY; the Vermont Studio Center, Johnson, VT; and the Santa Fe Art Institute, Santa Fe, NM. She has also been a Chashama Studio Space recipient, and an Elizabeth Foundation Studio Program/Space awardee.
Salas was named a 2021 Artist-in-Residence at Google and commissioned by the United States Tennis Association and the Armory Show with Mrs. to create a new outdoor sculpture for the US Open, in 2022. Her work is currently on view in Synchronicities: Intersecting Figuration with Abstraction at the Bemis Art Center in Omaha, Nebraska. A solo exhibition of Salas’ work can also be viewed at New Mexico State University Art Museum, through the first of March, 2025. The artist has been represented by Mrs. since 2020.
This project has been made possible with the support of Galleri Urbane, Dallas, TX and Mrs., Maspeth, NY.
Half Stepping Hot Stepper (2016) and Untitled (2017), by Eddie Martinez: Katy Trail Art in partnerships with Nasher Public, located at Thomsen Overlook
Born on a military base in Groton, Connecticut in 1977, Eddie Martinez grew up moving frequently around the United States, including a period spent in Texas. Largely self-taught, Martinez tried and ultimately left art school, after which he gained another kind of visual education working in museums and galleries as an art installer before becoming a professional artist.
Half Stepping Hot Stepper (2016) and Untitled (2017) originally began as assemblages of detritus that Martinez collected on the beach near his home and studio in Long Island and Ridgewood, NY. “A lot of objects I was finding already had their own life," the artist has said of the elements he collected when he began to make sculpture in 2013. "They were already somewhat destroyed and in a unique shape. A half children’s scissor, a bottle cap—small. It was a way to approach sculpture without having to be a sculptor.” He cast these found objects in bronze and painted them with bright swaths of color using spray paint, oil, and enamel.
For more information about Nasher Public: Eddie Martinez, visit The Nasher Sculpture Center’s website.
Half Stepping Hot Stepper
Untitled
About the Nasher Sculpture Center
Located in the heart of the Dallas Arts District, the Nasher Sculpture Center is home to the Raymond and Patsy Nasher Collection, one of the finest collections of modern and contemporary sculpture in the world, featuring more than 500 masterpieces by Brancusi, Calder, de Kooning, di Suvero, Giacometti, Basquiat, Hepworth, LeWitt, Matisse, Miró, Moore, Picasso, Rodin, Serra, and Shapiro, among others. The Nasher Sculpture Center is open Wednesday through Sunday from 11 am to 5 p.m. Admission is $10 for adults, $7 for seniors, $5 for students, and free for children 12 and under and members, and includes access to special exhibitions.
See Our Past Art
Katy Trail Art 2025 Presenting Sponsor
Marilyn Lenox
Katy Trail Art Donors
Anonymous
Pat Baudendistel
Faisal Halum and Brian Bolke
J. Patrick Collins
Bela and Chase Cooley
Jennifer and John Eagle
Christina and Sal Jafar
Laura and Greg Koonsman
Kasey and Todd Lemkin
Marilyn Lenox
Ann and Chris Mahowald
Jessica and Dirk Nowitzki
Janelle and Alden Pinnell
Kelli and Allen Questrom
Cindy and Howard Rachofsky
John S. Relton
Ginny Searcy
Sewell Automotive Companies
Lindsay and Blake Shipp
Amanda and Charlie Shufeldt
UOVO: Art, Fashion, and Wine
Amy and Les Ware
Peggy and Mark Zilbermann
Donation Information
Art Donor Levels And Benefits
Art Donation Form
Art Selection Committee
Amanda Shufeldt, Co-Chair
Charlie Shufeldt, Co-Chair
Jennifer Eagle
Vivian Li
Jed Morse
Jessica Nowitzki
Janelle Pinell
Howard Rachofsky
John Runyon
Jeremy Strick
Peggy Zilbermann
