Multiple times a month, people stop in front of Dickson-Jenkins Lofts & Plaza on St. Louis Avenue in the Near Southside to peep through a large window of the historic building.
Tucked inside one of the building’s suites is the Giant Runt Gallery, an art space filled with dozens of paintings, sculptures and visual art pieces.
But what’s so eye-catching about the works?
Gallery founders Cosmo Jones and Max Marshall said it’s the experimental and eclectic nature of the art they’ve curated that invites viewers to think outside of what the curators deem the “general Fort Worth norm” of Western art.
Established in September 2024, Giant Runt operates as an artist-run gallery that its founder said exists between Fort Worth’s grassroots art scene and commercial art spaces that function primarily to make a profit.
“We’re not only trying to show art that’s conceptual, but we also try to curate in a way that doesn’t show the same things over and over again,” Marshall said. “You won’t just get a glass show, a sculpture show, or a photography show. It’s going to have a different flavor every time.”
“Everyone is Someone’s Baby,” the gallery’s latest exhibition, opens at 6 p.m. May 1 and features multidisciplinary art from artists Megan Solis and Glory West.
The Near Southside gallery is one of the creative ventures between Jones and Marshall, who have spent more than four years as artistic collaborators under the name Kickpigeon Kids. The artists organize installation-based exhibitions at Grackle Art Gallery in Arlington Heights.
Jones and Marshall were inspired to establish Giant Runt after the summer 2024 announcement that the Fort Worth Community Arts Center would close at the end of that year given the building’s need for $30 million in repairs.
The 77,000-square-foot community building served as a launchpad for several local artists to grow their careers. Even though the artists couldn’t afford to invest in the building, they felt a calling to try to fill the artistic void, Marshall said.
“We were reinvigorated to open a space,” she said. “We were thinking about the kinds of works that don’t always end up in gallery spaces.”
Giant Runt is located in the former home of Bale Creek Allen’s namesake gallery, which closed in late August 2024 as the artist relocated to New York.
Before that, the suite was used for Cufflink Art, a gallery co-owned by Doug Gault and Joey Luong that quietly closed in 2022.
Artist Jori Jori’s sculpture “The East Wind” won first place at Giant Runt Gallery’s inaugural Juried Show. The art piece is made of recycled materials, including felt, paper, beads, buttons and doll parts. (David Moreno | Fort Worth Report) Giant Runt recently displayed its largest exhibition to date with the gallery’s first-ever Juried Show in late March. The show featured installations, drawings and sculptures from more than 40 artists out of 400 applicants.
Artist Jori Jori won first place for her sculptural work “The East Wind,” which included a $500 cash prize and a solo exhibition in the space next year.
Marshall and Jones initially signed on to lease the suite space for two years, but they said the gallery will remain in the Dickson-Jenkins building for the foreseeable future.
The founders’ dream is to eventually relocate to a larger space with more gallery spaces and artist studios. But for now, they’re remaining focused on and letting people know there’s a place that celebrates all types of art in Fort Worth.
“Being an artist kept me in the scene and kept us a part of this network,” Marshall said. “This gallery is a way of giving back to that community.”
If you go
What: “Everyone is Someone’s Baby”
When: 6-9 p.m. May 1; noon-5 p.m. May 16, 30 and June 13; open by appointment
Where: Giant Runt Gallery, 120 St. Louis Ave., Suite 149, Fort Worth
Admission: Free
David Moreno is the arts and culture reporter for the Fort Worth Report. Contact him at david.moreno@fortworthreport.org or @davidmreports.
The Fort Worth Report’s arts and culture coverage is supported in part by the Meta Alice Keith Bratten Foundation and the Virginia Hobbs Charitable Trust. At the Report, news decisions are made independently of our board members and financial supporters. Read more about our editorial independence policy here.
This article first appeared on Fort Worth Report and is republished here under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
