On Wednesday, August 12, we are opening the gallery for an evening on art, science and the feeling of home. I will be in conversation with Erica McLain, a former Olympian turned neuroscience-led interior designer, and we would love designers, industry and collectors alike to join us. Here is why this one matters to me.
A DIFFERENT KIND OF EVENING
Why we are opening the doors for this one
We take our time between art shows. That is a deliberate choice, and a good one. It means each show, and each evening like this one, gets our whole attention, and we gather people only when something is truly worth it. This is one of those times.
For years I have watched people walk into this gallery, stop in front of a piece, and soften. Their shoulders drop. Their voice quietens. Something settles. I have always felt it, and never quite had the words for it. On August 12, Erica McLain is bringing the science that does.
The idea at the heart of the evening is simple. The art on your walls is not the last thing you choose for a room. It is one of the first, because it changes how the room feels, and how you feel inside it.
THE GALLERY
A little about ALG Fine Art and the artists who work here
If you have not been to us before, here is the short version. ALG Fine Art is a resident studio gallery at 1302 Dragon Street, in the Dallas Design District. Resident means our artists actually work here. Their studios are in the building. Walk in on the right afternoon and you will meet them at the bench, not just see their names on a wall.
Our resident artists are Christi Meril , Lisa Moriarty and me, Anna Curnes. Alongside our studios we keep a fourth room, the ALG Experimental Space, for work that is testing something new. Together it makes for a gallery that feels more like a working space than a white box, which is exactly how we like it.
Giving each art show room to breathe is one of the things I love most about how we work here. The artist is properly seen. You get an experience that stays with you. That is the whole point of doing it this way.
OUR GUEST
Who is Erica McLain
Erica McLain has taken a wonderful, winding path to this work. She competed for the United States as a triple jumper at the 2008 Olympic Games. She spent fifteen years in product and design at Facebook and Google. Somewhere along the way she noticed that the room a screen sat in was shaping people more than anything on the screen ever could.
So she followed that thread into interior design, and into the science underneath it. Now every choice she makes in a home, from the colour on a wall to the fabric on a chair, is chosen for what it does to a person. Their sleep. Their focus. Their stress. In her words, she designs spaces that work with your biology, so your home replenishes you instead of quietly draining you.
THE IDEA
Why some rooms make you feel better than others
Most of us have a favourite room, the one we always drift to, and we have never really worked out why. It turns out there is a reason, and it can be measured. The field is called neuroaesthetics. In plain terms, it is the study of how your brain and body respond to a space. Light, sound, texture, pattern, the line of sight from the door. All of it is doing something to your nervous system, quietly, every day.
Art sits right in the middle of that. A piece is not decoration you add at the end. It is one of the strongest signals in the room. Get it right and the whole space changes.
WHO THIS IS FOR
Why we built this evening for designers and industry, not only collectors
Here is the part I care about most. This evening was made as much for the people who design rooms as for the people who collect the art that goes in them.
It is for interior designers. It is for realtors and stagers, for architects, for anyone whose work puts people inside rooms and hopes they feel something. If you place art for clients, or you would love a sharper way to choose it, this is a way of thinking you can use on Monday morning.
It is for collectors too, of course. If you already love a piece, you will leave understanding what it is doing for the room it lives in, and how to make it do even more.
And it is for the plainly curious. You are welcome exactly as you are, whether art is your world or completely new to you. All you need is a room in mind, the one you would love to feel different in.
We are so pleased to open this one up to the design trade. Bring a client. Bring a colleague. Bring the person you keep arguing with about the living room.
THE EVENING
What happens on the night
Erica has chosen three works currently hanging at ALG. Each one becomes a station. At each station you will see the same piece placed in three different kinds of room, layered with the fabrics and materials that would live alongside it. Same artwork, three rooms, three completely different effects.
Each station comes at the same question from a different direction. Start with a piece you love and build the room around it. Start with the room and add the art. Or start with how you want to feel and work back to what gets you there.
Doors open at 7. Erica and I begin our conversation at 7:30 and talk for around forty five minutes, then we open the floor to your questions. After that, everyone walks the stations again, seeing them properly this time.
The evening is on Wednesday, August 12, 2026, from 7 to 9pm, here at ALG Fine Art, 1302 Dragon Street, Dallas. It is free to attend, and we ask that you register in advance. We like to keep these evenings intimate, so places are limited.
COME AND SEE IT
How to join us
Reserve your place through the link below. Come with an open eye and a room in mind. There will be a card waiting for you at the door with a map of the works we are discussing and a few questions to sit with. Most people fill it.
Whether you design rooms for a living, collect the work that goes in them, or simply want to understand how the right room can lift a whole day, we would love to have you with us.
GOOD TO KNOW
Questions we are often asked
What is the event?
An evening of conversation and walkable art stations on how art, light and materials shape the way a room makes you feel. It is hosted by ALG Fine Art with neuroscience-led interior designer Erica McLain and gallery director Anna Curnes.
When and where is it?
Wednesday, August 12, 2026, from 7 to 9pm, at ALG Fine Art, 1302 Dragon Street, Dallas, in the Design District.
Is the event complimentary?
Yes. It is free to attend, and we ask that you register in advance because places are limited by the size of the room.
Who is the evening for?
Interior designers, realtors, stagers, architects and the wider design trade, art collectors, and anyone curious about how their home makes them feel. Everyone is welcome, whether art is familiar to you or completely new.
Who is Erica McLain?
A former US Olympic triple jumper and product designer at Facebook and Google, now a neuroscience-led interior designer who applies research on how spaces affect the brain and body to the way she designs homes.
What is neuroaesthetics?
The study of how the brain and body respond to the sensory features of a space, such as light, sound, texture and pattern, and how those responses affect mood, focus, sleep and stress.
Who are the resident artists at ALG Fine Art?
Christi Meril, Lisa Moriarty and Anna Curnes, alongside the ALG Experimental Space, which is kept for new and experimental work.
How do I attend?
Register in advance using the link HERE. You will be sent joining details and a short note on what to bring.
