Current Exhibitions

1878 Gallery & Vault
March 8 - June 8, 2025

Ashley Thomas
Solastalgia Hour

The exhibition Solastalgia Hour by Ashley Thomas stems from the artist’s memories and thoughts around nature, industrialization, and solastalgia – the distress that is produced by environmental change. Thomas’s dimly lit graphite drawings and animation in the exhibition are inspired by memories of places as they were in the past, and how they may change in the future. These works reference a range of moments and places in the artist’s life from the sounds of ship fog horns and refinery burn-off flares in the Corpus Christi Hillcrest neighborhood in the 1980s to the sensory universe of lightning bugs and backyard nature in Central Illinois in the 1990s. They reflect on the threats and conflicts to nature and home environments, revealing a sense of grief and disconnection that can be experienced in places considered to be home. The works in this exhibition echo poet Leah Naomi Green’s writing about solastalgia: “I mourn the wood thrush, even while I hear it sing.”

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Brown Foundation Gallery
March 8 - June 8, 2025

Michael Anthony García
Radical Synergy

Radical Synergy is Michael Anthony García's continued exploration of new territories in his practice, which started with the 2024 exhibition Agua Gusgo at The Projecto in Austin, TX. It reflects on the immediacy (and lingering) of information, the uniqueness of our experiences, and the perceived reality of the world around us. Shaped by his identities and observed through a personal lens, Radical Synergy combines remembered interactions and occurrences seeking to peek around the edge of our collective perception. Through child's play in the form of art making using everyday objects, video as memory and performance, García questions and challenges even his own ingrained readings of reality.

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Strand Gallery
January 11 - March 30, 2025

Vitus Shell
Study Long, Study Wrong

Vitus Shell’s mixed media collage paintings portray the Black experience and give agency to the people from his community through powerful images deconstructing, sampling, and remixing identity, civil rights, and contemporary Black culture. His exhibition title, Study Long, Study Wrong, quotes the late Texas rapper Pimp C, known for his provocative lyrics and stylish wardrobe, who declared, “If you study long, you study wrong.” This mantra is often repeated during lively games of dominoes as a reminder to keep the game moving and not overthink every move. Shell invokes this slogan to challenge the self-doubt imposed by the systemic oppression of individuals through the American education system and their depictions in media. In order to overcome second-guessing oneself, Shell’s work embodies the power of personal agency and emphasizes the importance of simply being. For Shell, “learning about oneself and the community’s history, individuals can unlock a deeper understanding of our existence and embrace our inherent value.”

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