Join us for an exclusive VIP hour for our members, where you'll be the first to enjoy a preview of the exhibition and a moment with the artists of Velvet Faith before the exhibition opens to the public.

Dallas Contemporary is pleased to present Velvet Faith, curated by Emily Edwards, features artists EJ Hill and Martin Gonzales and will include works created on-site during their month-long residency, alongside new sculptures and paintings.

Velvet Faith explores the dynamics of community, emphasizing trust and faith as foundational elements. The show serves as a trust fall for both artists, who come together onsite to create new work in a collaborative process, embracing the unknown of what will emerge. In this exploration, they investigate how creating large-scale works can help assert and reclaim space typically denied to certain groups and individuals, highlighting the crucial importance of feeling worthy in a world that often refuses to see them fully. Their practices reflect a deep need to engage with the world. Despite their differing backgrounds—Hill’s rooted in durational performance and Gonzales in sculpture—their practices converge in a shared desire to honor improvisation as a tool within survival and liberation frameworks.

This exhibition invites viewers to come home—whatever or wherever that might be. Together, Hill and Gonzales celebrate the hard work of being soft, the power of living one’s truth, and the journey towards self-determination. Through Velvet Faith, Hill and Gonzales embrace the freedom of returning to themselves, embody an example of expansiveness, and ask viewers to take part in witnessing the value of their shared experience.