Opening Reception: Spring 2026 Exhibitions
Francesca Lally, Formerly War Memorial Stadium, 2025. From the series Bigger, 2025. Archival inkjet print. Courtesy of the artist.
Join us for the opening of three new major exhibitions at the Visual Arts Center, a new mural, and the re-opening of Zalika Azim’s year-long exhibition, Blood Memories (or a going to ground).
On Friday, January 23, from 5 to 8 PM, join us for the solo museum debut of UT alumnus Abby Flanagan in the exhibition Abby Flanagan: To Move Through Stone, the culmination of Francesca Lally’s 2025–26 St. Elmo Arts Residency with the exhibition Francesca Lally: Half Time, and a group exhibition titled Towards Détournement, curated by UT undergraduate students.
In the exhibition Abby Flanagan: To Move Through Stone, artist Abby Flanagan examines the Edwards Aquifer, a natural underground water system that spans Central and South Texas and supplies water to over 2 million people. Francesca Lally: Half Time presents the culmination of Lally’s year-long residency at UT, during which she examined relationships between the communities that populated ancient Roman coliseums and the community surrounding the UT Longhorns’ iconic Darrell K. Royal Texas Memorial Stadium. Towards Détournement, an exhibition organized in partnership with Center Space Project, reflects on Guy Debord’s Society of the Spectacle by assembling artists whose work encourages critical engagement and skepticism toward mass media, consumerism, powerful institutions, and parochial historical narratives. Zalika Azim’s exhibition Blood Memories (or a going to ground) investigates the space between departure and arrival, focusing on histories of Black movement and placemaking in the U.S.
January 23 also marks the debut of a new large-scale mural at the VAC titled Codex Two Thousand Twenty-Six. Created by UT professor and artist Carlos Rosales-Silva, in collaboration with students enrolled in his advanced painting class, the mural uses pictographic symbols to depict the ideas and issues shaping the lives of the next generation of artists.
Refreshments are provided in-kind by our friends Saint Arnold Brewing Company, Topo-Chico, Coca-Cola, and smartwater. Along with music, enjoy a selection of books that reflect the themes present in the VAC’s current exhibitions at Alienated Majesty Books’ table.
