Exhibition Opening + Reception | Black Bird Redemption Song + Suspended at the UMLAUF

Join us on Wednesday, September 3rd at 6:00pm to celebrate the opening of two of the UMLAUF's newest exhibitions: Black Bird Redemption Song and Suspended at the UMLAUF: Totems. Opening September 3, 2025 and running through January 4, 2026, these exhibitions present contemporary works that explore themes of social justice, cultural identity, and artistic transformation through sculptural and mixed-media installations.

This Exhibition Opening + Reception will feature an exclusive first look into this exhibition, specialty cocktails, and an enjoyable evening! Free and open to the public, walk-ups welcome.

About the exhibitions:

Black Bird Redemption Song features Huckaby’s brand new sculptural bird series—papier-mâché forms housed within antique birdcages that cannot accommodate the birds’ scale. The sculptures are accompanied by drawings that span Huckaby’s decades-long artistic exploration of community, humanity, struggle, and spirituality. The black birds are complemented by Portrait of Craig Watkins, an installation featuring a life-sized sculpture of the former Dallas District Attorney. Standing six feet five inches tall, the figure represents Watkins, Texas's first elected African American District Attorney. These works examine themes of confinement and freedom, addressing the impact of mass incarceration on Black communities in America.                        

Suspended at the UMLAUF: Totems is a new exhibition by acclaimed Austin-based artist Terra Goolsby. Totems is the latest in the UMLAUF's Suspended at the UMLAUF series, a juried exhibition highlighting a single sculptural installation suspended within the museum’s octagonal Roberta Crenshaw Room. Through hanging sculptural forms that weave together ancestral imagery with personal narrative, Goolsby’s Totems explore legacy, lineage, and healing. Totems features five different 8-foot totemic sculptures constructed from ceramic and fabric and are drawn from Mesoamerican and Mexican American iconography.