DC Stories Tour: Velvet Faith

Saturday, 22 March 2025

1:00 pm - 2:00 pm

Free admission

161 Glass St. Dallas, TX

Join us for a guided tour through our current exhibition, Velvet Faith, with a focus on the individual artists and their careers. This tour is recommended for individuals who are interested in how an artist's personal narrative can influence their practice, and how a viewer's own stories might find new meaning through art.

Join us for Dallas Contemporary's monthly gallery tour, a brand new exclusive perk just for DC members.

Each month, Dallas Contemporary will be partnering with Dallas-based artists, studios, and galleries to provide members with an initimate opportunity to tour the studio with a walkthrough by the artist, plus enjoy light bites and drinks.

Mix and mingle with like-minded members, explore Dallas art, and get to know the artist behind the work.

This month we will be visiting WAAS (We Are All Stars) Gallery.

Join us for Dallas Contemporary's monthly studio tour, a brand new exclusive perk just for DC members.

Each month, Dallas Contemporary will be partnering with a Dallas-based artist, studio, or gallery to provide members with an initimate opportunity to tour the studio with a walkthrough by the artist, plus enjoy light bites and drinks.

Mix and mingle with like-minded members, explore Dallas art, and get to know the artist behind the work.

This month we will be visiting Tureen Gallery. Learn more about the gallery and what's on view at tureen.info.

Taking place on select second Wednesdays of the month before we open to the public, parents, and caregivers are invited to bring children up to 5 years old for a guided stroll through our current exhibitions.

The stroller tour is a time in which conversation, questions, and animated babies are encouraged!

We are thrilled to invite you to an evening dedicated to showing our appreciation for current members + inviting new friends to experience the perks of a DC membership.

This month, Membership + Community Engagement Manager, Kelly Mason, will be hosting a collage and junk journaling night. We'll take care of all the supplies—just bring yourself. (Of course, feel free to bring any of your own supplies and materials you'd like to use!)

We are deeply grateful for your commitment to our museum – your support ensures that DC remains always different, always free. Looking to become a member? Membership tiers begin at just $50 and include free admission to all Second Sunday Membership Mixer events. Learn more + sign up here.

About Kelly Mason:

Kelly's work is fueled by the joy and authenticity of her inner child, and she explores various mediums, from fashion and photography to collage and painting. In 2023, she founded Petit Knock (@petitknock), a creative studio dedicated to crafting personable content for small businesses around the metroplex.

Dallas Contemporary is pleased to present Open University, the inaugural DC NTX Graduate Student Program exhibition on view 24 January 2025, curated by Matthew Higgs, Director and Chief Curator of White Columns in New York. The annual initiative, launched in August 2024, invites North Texas MFA students in their final year of graduate work to exhibit at Dallas Contemporary, after being selected by a visiting national curator. The program is aimed at advancing the early careers of emerging artists schooled in the region and fosters healthy interactions and connections between students and renowned curators. The DC NTX Graduate Student Program is funded with foundational five-year support from Ann and John McReynolds.

In addition to the exhibition and mentorship provided to the cohort, the DC NTX Graduate Student Program also offers an annual $8,000 award to one of the artists in the exhibition, selected by the McReynolds and Higgs, as well as a yearly curatorial fellowship to a student pursuing a Master’s degree in contemporary art history. This year, Higgs is joined by McReynolds Curatorial Fellow Abby Bryant from Texas Christian University. 

Across students from Southern Methodist University, Texas Christian University, Texas Woman’s University, University of North Texas, The University of Texas at Arlington, and The University of Texas at Dallas, the inaugural DC NTX Graduate Student Program cohort includes: Courtney Broussard, Christina Childress, Lisa Clayton, Taylor Cleveland, Pablo Cruz, Veronica Ibargüengoitia Tena, Austin Lewis, Katherine Pinkham, Sarah Rainey, Elijah Ruhala, Narong Tintamusik, Sharmeen Uqaili, and Vajihe Zamaniderkani.

Apprentice Creative Space: First Fridays
Friday, 07 March, 2025
7.00 pm - 9.00 pm, limited capacity
Free admission
919 Morrell Ave #110 Dallas, TX

Kick off DABF by connecting with local creatives at Apprentice Creative Space’s First Fridays mixer, a casual networking event —co-hosted this month with Dallas Contemporary.

The New Painter: Artist Talk with Tra Bouscaren

Thursday, 06 March 2025

6.30 pm - 8:00 pm

Free admission, complimentary drinks (21+)

161 Glass St., Dallas, TX

Join us in discussing artist Tra Bouscaren’s work at the intersection of waste culture and digital media. The artist will talk about his creative practice. Following his talk, Bouscaren will participate in a Q&A.

About Tra Bouscaren

Tra Bouscaren serves as an Assistant Professor and Director of the eXMeLab (Expanded Media Lab) in the New College of Interdisciplinary Arts and Sciences at Arizona State University. He earned a BA in Philosophy from Yale University, an MFA from the University of Pennsylvania, and is ABD towards a PhD in Media Study at SUNY Buffalo. Bouscaren’s work has been featured at the Mattress Factory (Pittsburgh), Vittorio Manalese (Berlin), the Centre de Cultura Contemporània de Barcelona, among many other venues.

Bousaren is a neo-cave painter. Assembling e-waste, neon, billboards, and salvage from demolition sites, his installations critique American spectacle at the intersection of waste culture and the surveillance state. From the ceiling down, he constructs storms of trash into which he weaves surveillance equipment. Live surveillance video feeds are algorithmically combined with test patterns and re-deployed through a multichannel array, submerging the installation in projection. By illuminating the installation with the calibrated image of the spectator, the work recalibrates the viewer in relation to the salvaged substrate upon which it is projected.

About The New Painter

The New Painter (TNP) is a project supporting research in digitally-informed practices in painting. TNP promotes fluidity between digital and material practices through creative research, visiting scholars, and workshops. With support from a UT Dallas HEARTS grant, The New Painter champions ongoing discourse in the field of new media painting. Drawing on the history of painting as an ever-evolving discourse, along with the history of images themselves, TNP advances conceptual, technical, and material fluency in new media painting.

Spacy: Archives Beyond Activism 
Sunday, 02 March, 2025
2:00 pm - 4:00 pm
Free admission, limited capacity
1300 S Polk St #160a, Dallas, TX

In this workshop, attendees will put archival images classified as LBGT in dialogue with their own photo libraries, creating a new artifact that can be left in a public place. We will each use the space of one page to think about what queerness and transness actually is in the world — the way it liberates people, the way it threatens all structures meant to oppress everyone. And we’ll go behind the scenes of iconic images in various social campaigns to understand fully how tender, personal experience fuels collective action.
 
Hosted by the microcinema, Spacy, this workshop is facilitated by Lyndsay Knecht, Editorial and Engagement Lead of Red Hot and will include music from the nonprofit label’s catalog with an emphasis on TRAИƧA, the 46-track spiritual journey featuring 100+ contributors celebrating trans artistry and influence. Admission is free. Attendees will receive information about archives accessible to them for future projects. For those who are not able to make it, RSVPed patrons will still receive this information at a later time through email.

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.

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.

Apprentice Creative Space: Zine-Making Workshop
Thursday, 27 February, 2025
7.00 pm - 9.00 pm
Free admission, limited capacity
919 Morrell Ave #110 Dallas, TX

Learn how to make a zine at Apprentice Oak Cliff, a nonprofit creative hub in the historic Oak Cliff Assembly building. Whether you're a beginner or a seasoned zine-maker, join us for a hands-on folding session and connect with fellow creatives.

Dallas Contemporary invites its members to an exclusive preview of Velvet Faith on Wednesday, 26 February, offering a behind-the-scenes look at this dynamic project before its public opening on 28 February. Be among the first to explore this evolving exhibition and engage with the artists as they finalize their work.

Join us for a guided tour through our current exhibition, Open University, where we will explore the imagery, intent and artist narrative that the DC NTX Graduate Program cohort of artists approach within their work. For first time visitors of the exhibitions, this is the recommended experience to get a holistic view of the works on display.

Join us for a guided tour through our current exhibition, Open University, where we will explore the imagery, intent and artist narrative that the DC NTX Graduate Program cohort of artists approach within their work. For first time visitors of the exhibitions, this is the recommended experience to get a holistic view of the works on display.

Soft Spots: RISO CLUB
Friday, 21 February, 2025
5.00 pm - 8.00 pm
Free admission, limited capacity
915 Seale St. Dallas, TX

Meet us at Soft Spots for RISO CLUB. Come fold your zines, print a project, or just doodle. You will have access to the riso machines with help from our assistant. This is first come first serve when it comes to printing and using our community supplies so be prepared to share. Typical printing costs apply to any riso work.

Follow the link below and select a slot for Friday, 21 February to join us.

Celebrate love and friendship with an evening of creative fun and sweet treats after hours at the museum.

Join us for a special Valentine’s event after hours at Dallas Contemporary featuring a bouquet bar by CONCEPTO, perfume meet/swap co-hosted by Spacy and Fragraphilia, photobooth by Shot By Thrive, sweet treats by Rae’s Treats, and a DIY Valentine Card making station.

Taking place on select second Wednesdays of the month before we open to the public, parents, and caregivers are invited to bring children up to 5 years old for a guided stroll through our current exhibitions.

The stroller tour is a time in which conversation, questions, and animated babies are encouraged!

DC Membership Mixer: Embroidery Workshop

Sunday, 09 February 2025

5.00 pm - 7.00 pm

$15 admission, Free for Members

161 Glass St. Dallas, TX

We are thrilled to invite you to an evening dedicated to showing our appreciation for current members + inviting new friends to experience the perks of a DC membership.

This month, Visitor Services Manager, Dorian Dayton, will be hosting an embroidery workshop. We'll take care of all the supplies—just bring yourself!

We are deeply grateful for your commitment to our museum – your support ensures that DC remains always different, always free. Looking to become a member? Membership tiers begin at just $35 and include free admission to all Second Sunday Membership Mixer events. Learn more + sign up here.

About Dorian Dayton:

Dorian Dayton is an experimental video and photography artist. Inspired by a decade’s worth of experience in education and martial arts, he explores the idea of mastery through an array of alternative process short films and photographs. In contrast to traditional depictions that capture mastery as a state to be witnessed, he presents mastery as something that needs to be experienced and created through practice, time, and repetition.

Join us for Dallas Contemporary's first studio tour of the year, a brand new exclusive perk just for DC members.

Each month, Dallas Contemporary will be partnering with a Dallas-based artist, studio, or gallery to provide members with an initimate opportunity to tour the studio with a walkthrough by the artist, plus enjoy light bites and drinks.

Mix and mingle with like-minded members, explore Dallas art, and get to know the artist behind the work.

This month we will be visiting the studio of Dallas artist David-Jeremiah. Learn more about the artist and his work at david-jeremiah.com.

The Dallas Art Book Fair celebrates its 5th anniversary this spring, returning to Dallas Contemporary for its fourth iteration as the museum’s highest-attended program. Held over the course of two days, the annual book fair brings together regional, national, and international artists, presses, publishers, galleries, and bookstores in the museum’s generous space. In addition to offering a stimulating assortment of printed works from local, national, and international presses, the fair also boasts an enriched programming schedule, with engaging conversations + readings with authors and artists; a makerspace for zine and printmaking workshops; activities for kids and families; live music; and culinary offerings from around the city.

2025 vendor applications are now open through Friday, 31 January. Apply below.

January 26th is the final chance to experience Chivas Clem: Shirttail Kin. Through his distinctive perception, Clem weaves a compelling narrative that celebrates the complexities of kinship while inviting viewers to reflect on their own roots. Don’t miss this opportunity to explore the photographs that have resonated with wide audiences—this is your last day to immerse yourself in this powerful showcase.

Join us for a panel discussion covering DC's launch of the Dallas Contemporary North Texas Graduate Student Program. A new annual initiative, the DC NTX Graduate Student Program facilitates generative mentorship and institutional connections between North Texas MFA students in their final year of graduate work and a renowned visiting curator, resulting in an exhibition at Dallas Contemporary. Led by Matthew Higgs, Lucia Simek and Abby Bryant.

Learn more about NTX Graduate Student Program here.

Inaugural Curator | Matthew Higgs, Director and Chief Curator of White Columns, New York

Matthew Higgs is an artist, curator and writer based in New York. He is currently the Director and Chief Curator of White Columns, New York's oldest alternative art space. Since 1993 Higgs has curated more than 250 exhibitions and projects in North America, Europe and Asia; his writings have appeared in over 75 publications and magazines. Previously Higgs was the Curator at the CCA Wattis Institute of Contemporary Arts, San Francisco, and a Director of Exhibitions and London's Institute of Contemporary Art. He has taught extensively over the past thirty years including roles at London's Royal College of Art and Goldsmiths College. In 2006 he was a juror on The Turner Prize at Tate Britain, London. Higgs is the founding curatorial advisor to the Independent Art Fair and a Contributing Editor at The Paris Review.

Lucia Simek, Interim Director of Dallas Contemporary

Lucia Arbery Simek is an artist, writer and curator. She has exhibited her artwork both locally and internationally, and has published widely on contemporary art. As a curator, she has mounted exhibitions at the Dallas Museum of Art and The Reading Room, among others, and most recently curated a permanent collection of works for the historic Adolphus Hotel in downtown Dallas, where she also organized a highly acclaimed series of public talks with artists and writers. From 2014-2022, Simek served as Head of Communications and International Programs at the Nasher Sculpture Center, where she organized Nasher Prize Dialogues, a series of compelling discussions with artists and curators about contemporary sculptural practice held in partnership with institutions around the world, as well as worked as editor in chief of the museum magazine The Nasher. A seasoned writer, Simek recently penned essays for Hauser & Wirth’s magazine Ursula, ‘The Landscape of Eternity: Travels Through Texas, with Forrest Bess,’ as well as for the Richard Prince exhibition catalogue at the Karpidas Collection in Dallas, and participated in a public talk with artist Will Boone and writer Randy Kennedy for Boone’s exhibition No Man’s Land at Karma gallery in New York, to be published as a book through Karma later this year. She is currently working on a book of essays which considers the relationship to Texas and its landscape in mid-century artists Forrest Bess, Myron Stout and Alberto Burri, to be published by Deep Vellum Publishing.

McReynolds Curatorial Fellow | Abby Bryant, Master's Art History Candidate TCU

Abby Bryant is the first recipient of the McReynolds Curatorial Fellowship at the Dallas Contemporary. She completed her undergraduate degree in History of Art and Architectural History at the University of Edinburgh in 2022 and is in her final year as a Master's Art History student at Texas Christian University. Her research focuses on Contemporary Indigenous art in North America, especially concerning issues of visual sovereignty, resurgence, and dispossession. Alongside her studies, Abby also works at the Kimbell Art Museum as a Museum Educator.

Dallas Contemporary is pleased to present Open University, the inaugural DC NTX Graduate Student Program exhibition opening on 24 January 2025, curated by Matthew Higgs, Director and Chief Curator of White Columns in New York. The annual initiative, launched in August 2024, invites North Texas MFA students in their final year of graduate work to exhibit at Dallas Contemporary, after being selected by a visiting national curator. The program is aimed at advancing the early careers of emerging artists schooled in the region and fosters healthy interactions and connections between students and renowned curators. The DC NTX Graduate Student Program is funded with foundational five-year support from Ann and John McReynolds.

Across students from Southern Methodist University, Texas Christian University, Texas Woman’s University, University of North Texas, The University of Texas at Arlington, and The University of Texas at Dallas, the inaugural DC NTX Graduate Student Program cohort includes: Courtney Broussard, Christina Childress, Lisa Clayton, Taylor Cleveland, Pablo Cruz, Veronica Ibargüengoitia Tena, Austin Lewis, Katherine Pinkham, Sarah Rainey, Elijah Ruhala, Narong Tintamusik, Sharmeen Uqaili, and Vajihe Zamaniderkani.

Dallas Contemporary invites its members to an exclusive press preview of Open University. Join inaugural curator Matthew Higgs, Director and Chief Curator of White Columns, New York for a guided walk-through of the exhibition, followed by a Q&A session.

Enjoy complimentary coffee and pastries while you explore Open University, the first DC NTX Graduate Student Program Exhibition. This exhibition showcases North Texas MFA students selected by a national curator, supporting emerging talent and fostering invaluable connections.

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

Dallas Contemporary is pleased to present Open University, the inaugural DC NTX Graduate Student Program exhibition opening January 24, 2025, curated by Matthew Higgs, Director and Chief Curator of White Columns in New York. The annual initiative, launched in August 2024, invites North Texas MFA students in their final year of graduate work to exhibit at Dallas Contemporary, after being selected by a visiting national curator. The program is aimed at advancing the early careers of emerging artists schooled in the region and fosters healthy interactions and connections between students and renowned curators. The DC NTX Graduate Student Program is funded with foundational five-year support from Ann and John McReynolds.

Across students from Southern Methodist University, Texas Christian University, Texas Woman’s University, University of North Texas, The University of Texas at Arlington, and The University of Texas at Dallas, the inaugural DC NTX Graduate Student Program cohort includes: Courtney Broussard, Christina Childress, Lisa Clayton, Taylor Cleveland, Pablo Cruz, Veronica Ibargüengoitia Tena, Austin Lewis, Katherine Pinkham, Sarah Rainey, Elijah Ruhala, Narong Tintamusik, Sharmeen Uqaili, and Vajihe Zamaniderkani.

Dallas Contemporary invites its members to an exclusive press preview of Open University. Join inaugural curator Matthew Higgs, Director and Chief Curator of White Columns, New York for a guided walk-through of the exhibition, followed by a Q&A session.

Revisit the 1972 classic, Deliverance, a gripping tale of survival as four city friends confront the untamed wilderness and unforgiving forces of nature and humanity on a perilous canoe trip through rural Georgia.

Join us for a special screening presented by Dallas Contemporary in collaboration with their current exhibition on view, ‘Chivas Clem: Shirttail Kin’.

After almost two decades in New York, Chivas Clem returned to his hometown of Paris, Texas, converting a dilapidated Victorian house into his studio. The move prompted Clem to encounter a community of transient men, “drifters, addicts, and former felons,” whom he hired to help in the studio. Growing close, the men became Clem’s “shirttail kin,” a colloquial term used in the South to mean one’s chosen family.

‘Shirttail Kin’ presents an archive of 61 photographs spanning over a decade. In a shift from the artist’s usual appropriation-based explorations of pop culture, the exhibition documents a local community of transient men whom Clem frequented upon his return to his hometown after an illustrious career in New York. Turning his attention to his native landscape, Clem captures some of the region’s most pressing issues. His intimate images disclose complex and surprising constructions of masculinity while also capturing an empathetic picture of a misunderstood and largely forgotten population.

Dallas-based coffee and matcha cart, specializing in authentic Vietnamese phin coffee serving 100% robusta honey beans, will pop up at DC. Serving all day, or until sold out.