Opening Celebration of 2026 NTX Graduate Student Program, 'In The Works'

Opening Celebration of Dallas Contemporary's
2026 NTX Graduate Student Program, In The Works
Friday, 13 February 2026
7.00 PM - 9.00 PM
Free admission, complimentary drinks (21+)
161 Glass St. Dallas, TX

On Friday, 13 February from 7.00 - 9.00 PM, join us for the celebration of In the Works, the second annual DC NTX Graduate Student Program exhibition opening February 13, 2026, curated by Anna Katz, Senior Curator at The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles (MOCA).

The annual initiative, launched in 2024, invites a cohort of North Texas Master of Fine Arts students in their final year of graduate work to exhibit at Dallas Contemporary after being selected by a visiting national curator. Initiated by Executive Director Lucia Simek, the program aims to advance the early careers of emerging artists schooled in the region by fostering healthy interactions and connections between students and renowned curators.

Applications for MFA artists were open from August through September 2025. From the pool of submissions, Katz created a short list and then conducted studio visits at the seven North Texas universities to select the final cohort of students for the exhibition at Dallas Contemporary. The second annual DC NTX Graduate Student Program cohort includes: Janay Bookhart, UNT; Marcy Davis, TCU; Alexandra Green, TWU; Christopher Nájera, TCU; Nadin Nassar, UNT; Freddy Ortega, TCU; Susan D. Seaborn, TWU; and Tina Vahed, UTD.

The resulting exhibition, In the Works, will feature work by eight artists studying in an array of North Texas MFA programs, including painting, sculpture, drawing, video, and photography, and provides insight into how emerging talents address aesthetic, political, and philosophical concerns in their art today. Their approaches are varied and multifaceted: both direct and associative—whether obtrusively inserting one’s body in public space in live performance or experimenting with materials that recall viscera; fantastical and observational—whether conjuring cultural mythologies and ancient wisdoms or staring at the same point in the sky at the same time every day for months on end to record the color; documentary and critical—whether creating a photographic archive to preserve familial memory or deconstructing pernicious media representations of cultural “others.”

Learn more about the exhibition, the curator, and the DC NTX Grad Program here.

Museum Policies

• No food or drink, please | No se permite comida ni bebida
• Photography allowed, but no flash | Solo fotografía sin flash
• Please refrain from touching the art | No tocar el arte
• This is a weapon-free zone | Zona libre de armas

By registering for this event, you consent to Dallas Contemporary’s use of your photo and other media, including film and quotes, for promotional materials and publications.

Image: Tina Vahed, In-Between, 2025. video art. overall installation width: approx. 12–13 ft. Image courtesy of the artist.

Thanks to the support of the Eugene McDermott Foundation, Dallas Contemporary will continue to offer free admission through 2026. This program is supported in part by the city of Dallas Arts and Culture.