Women & Their Work (W&TW), an Austin-based nonprofit visual and performing arts organization, has opened a call for solo exhibition proposals for its 2026/2027 season.
Jade Walker, from “Wayfinding,” 2023; Aryel René Jackson, “A Welcoming Place,” 2022; Jenelle Esparza, “It Could Only Be Lived,” 2022.
Women and nonbinary artists in Texas who have not had a solo exhibition at W&TW within the past decade are eligible to apply. The organization seeks applications from emerging, mid-career, and established artists who are working in innovative ways.
Women & Their Work, floor plan
The W&TW gallery is approximately 1,700-square-feet with 12-foot-tall ceilings. The space has track lighting and two moveable walls (8-by-8-feet and 8-by-10-feet). The organization has projectors, media players, and sound equipment available. Click here to access a 3D rendering of the space.
A three-person jury will review the applications. This year’s panel includes Shana Hoehn and Vicki Meek, who are both W&TW alumnae, and Claudia Zapata, the Associate Curator of Latino Art at the Blanton Museum of Art. Learn more about the panelists below via biographies provided by W&TW.
Selected artists will receive a $3,000 honorarium, assistance bringing their vision to fruition, an honorarium for a curatorial advisor. Additionally, W&TW will produce a color catalog of the exhibition featuring a commissioned essay, a 6 to 8 minute video of the artist discussing their work, and a public program such as a panel conversation, performance, or workshop.
The deadline to apply is January 8, 2025, and applicants will be notified via email by February 12. Learn more about the application process and apply via the W&TW website.
Shana Hoehn (she/her)
Working in sculpture and drawing, Los Angeles-based artist Shana Hoehn considers conditions of agency and transformation. Ms. Hoehn’s sculptural work combines traditional and digital fabrication techniques and employs various materials, including wood, sawdust, clay, bronze, and aluminum.
Ms. Hoehn received her MFA from the Virginia Commonwealth University in Sculpture and Extended Media and earned a BFA in Painting from the Maryland Institute College of Art. She presented her work in a solo exhibition at Women & Their Work in 2019 following her time at the Core Program at the Museum of Fine Arts Houston from 2016-2018. She has been the subject of solo and two-person exhibitions at Jack Barrett Gallery, NYC, NY (2023); Deli Gallery, Mexico City, MX (2023), Prairie, Chicago, IL (2023); Make Room, Los Angeles, CA (2022); among others.
Ms. Hoehn has participated in various residencies, including a Fulbright Fellowship in Mexico, Artpace’s International Artist-in-Residence in San Antonio, the Jan Van Eyck Academie in the Netherlands, Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture, and SOMA Summer in Mexico City. Hoehn’s work has received notable coverage in publications including Artforum, The Brooklyn Rail, and Mousse Magazine, among others.
Vicki Meek (she/her)
Vicki Meek, born and raised in Philadelphia, is a nationally recognized artist who has exhibited widely. In addition to having a studio practice, she is an independent curator and writes cultural criticism for Dallas Weekly with her blog Art & Racenotes. She also wrote a monthly column, ARTiculate for TheaterJones, an online performing arts magazine.
Ms. Meek was an adjunct faculty member for UMass Arts Extension Program in Amherst, Massachusetts where she taught a course in Cultural Equity in the Arts. She has over 40 years of arts administrative experience that includes working as a senior program administrator for a state arts agency, a local arts agency, and running a non-profit visual arts center. She served on the board of NPN from 2008 to 2015. In 2016, Ms. Meek was selected to be a Fellow in the Intercultural Leadership Institute and also became a Voting Member of Alternate Roots, a national artist service organization.
Ms. Meek has been awarded a number of grants and honors including the 2021 Texas Artist of the Year by Art League of Houston and the Meadows School of the Arts Moss/Chumbley Award for artistic excellence. In 2022, she became the inaugural Fellow for Nasher Sculpture Center. Ms. Meek currently serves as Dallas Mayor Eric Johnson’s at-large appointment to the Arts and Culture Commission and the Public Art Committee.
Claudia E. Zapata (they/them)
Claudia E. Zapata earned their PhD in Art History at Southern Methodist University’s RASC/a: Rhetorics of Art, Space, and Culture program. They received their BA and MA in Art History from the University of Texas at Austin, specializing in Maya art. Their research interests include curatorial methodologies of identity-based exhibitions, Chicanx and Latinx art, digital humanities, and BIPOC zines. Mx. Zapata was the curator of exhibitions and programs at the Mexic-Arte Museum in Austin from 2010-2014.
They co-founded the Latinx art project Puro Chingón Collective in 2012. This experimental art group develops zines, prints, apparel, designs, and art toys. From 2018-2022, they were the curatorial assistant of Latinx art at the Smithsonian American Art Museum, working on the award-winning exhibition, ¡Printing the Revolution! The Rise and Impact of Chicano Graphics, 1965 – Now.
From 2022 to 2023, Mx. Zapata was a Chancellor’s Postdoctoral Fellow at UCLA, mentored by Charlene Villaseñor Black, professor in the Departments of Art History and Chicana/o and Central American Studies. In 2023, Mx. Zapata became the inaugural Associate Curator of Latino Art at the Blanton Museum of Art in Austin.
