“In the days of various light” by Xochi Solis
On Friday, May 22, join us for the opening of In the days of various light, the latest solo show from Austin-based artist Xochi Solis.
The opening reception will be held from 7 to 9 PM with light refreshments from Tito’s Handmade Vodka.
All are welcome. Scroll for more details.
WHAT’S ON VIEW
Presented by Preservation Austin and Future Front, In the days of various light is the latest show from Austin-based artist Xochi Solis.
“‘In the days of various light’ is a site-specific, community-centered installation by Austin-based artist Xochi Solis, reflecting on the cyclical relationships between memory, transformation, and collective renewal within the city’s cultural landscape. Across its duration, the installation acts as a counter-archive, continually reshaped as collaged layers and community offerings build upon one another, tracing how Austin’s stories are held, altered, and carried forward. Just as plants thrive within interconnected systems, Solis explores how art-making, storytelling, and collaboration sustain cultural ecosystems.
Building upon Solis’s ongoing collage practice rooted in ancestral memory, Tejana identity, and the materiality of place, this installation expands from the intimate terrain of her family’s history in East Austin toward a collective ecology of stories. Viewers are invited to contribute photographs, printed materials, and ephemera that represent their own sense of Austin, transforming the work into an ever-changing, multilayered visual dialogue between past and present.
Installed at Future Front’s location on Austin’s historic East 12th Street, ’In the days of various light’ grounds itself in the textures of diverse lived experiences and in the acts of care and remembrance that sustain cultural connection. As the evolving collage accumulates over time, participants’ contributions will layer atop the artist’s own materials, slowly obscuring them, just as new growth covers old soil. Solis frames the process of covering, erasing, and rebuilding as both metaphor and method, echoing ecological cycles in which what comes before continually nourishes what follows.
This shifting surface reflects Austin’s ongoing remaking of itself, in which development and renewal frequently overwrite past lives and landscapes without fully tending to the histories they displace. Rather than claiming the authority of an archive, the work embraces its abstract ephemerality, suggesting that what endures most is not the object but the relational act of remembering.”
Curated by Jane Hervey, In the days of various light reflects the journey of Austin-based multidisciplinary artists like Xochi Solis—weaving collaborative and iterative relationships through our city’s local culture. This exhibit has been presented as part of a special collaboration with Preservation Austin.
MEET THE ARTIST
Xochi Solis
XOCHI SOLIS (b. 1981) is an Austin, TX-based mixed media artist and cultural strategist with over 20 years of experience. Her creative practice consistently aims to build spaces—physical, intellectual, and emotional—that explore her relationship to land, culture of place, and personal history.
Her works include collaged paintings that explore color, texture, and shape through paint, collected paper ephemera, hand-dyed and marbled paper, plastics, and found images from books and magazines. Through a practiced process of layering materials, incorporating the visual depth and illusions of photographic surfaces, Solis reflects on the visual complexities in her environment—both natural and cultural. Her work communicates a nuanced narrative about time, place, and sensation while grappling with how to represent an environment where her heritage, body, and dreams for the future co-exist.
While her practice remains rooted in mixed media, she thrives on collaborative creativity. This ethos is reflected in her participation in numerous artist residencies across the United States and Mexico, where she both nurtures and is nurtured by fellow artists. These experiences have strengthened her commitment to community-building through art, bridging her studio practice with her passion for creating innovative, collective spaces. Notably, she has been invited to the prestigious Pocoapoco Residency in Oaxaca, Mexico (Spring 2026), a gathering of international and local artists dedicated to collaboration and dialogue. In summer 2021, she participated in the pilot residency program at WRONG Marfa in Marfa, TX. Earlier, in 2016, Solis was an artist-in-residence at Pele Prints in St. Louis, MO, where she developed a series of monoprints combining her painting and collage techniques with printmaking. Her exploration of printmaking continued through collaborations with Shoestring Press in Brooklyn, NY, in 2017 and 2018.
Solis is featured among thirty artists in Collage: Contemporary Artists Hunt and Gather, Cut and Paste, Mash Up and Transform (Chronicle Books, 2014) and among forty-five artists in A BIG IMPORTANT ART BOOK (NOW WITH WOMEN): Profiles of Unstoppable Female Artists--and Projects to Help You Become One (Running Press, 2018).
Recent exhibitions include LAYERS: The Art of Contemporary Collage at Decker Gallery, Maryland Institute College of Art, Baltimore, MD (2025); Contemporary Ex-Votos: Devotion Beyond Medium at New Mexico State University Art Museum, Las Cruces; Gallery 400, Chicago; and Barrick Museum of Art, Las Vegas (2022–24); Rooted by Invisible Means at Galveston Arts Center, Galveston, TX (2020); Remedies for a Generation at Uprise Art (2020); Crawl into the Shapes the Shadow Takes at WRONG Gallery, Marfa, TX (2018); and Mi Tierra: Contemporary Artists Explore Place at Denver Art Museum, Denver, CO (2017).
Solis also serves on the board of Future Front Texas, an arts and culture non-profit, and performs as a vinyl DJ under the name Mira Mira, focusing on preserving and performing Tejanx culture.
ATTEND OPENING NIGHT
“In the days of various light” opens to the public from 7 to 9 PM on Friday, May 22.
REGISTER FOR ONE OR BOTH BELOW:
PREPARE YOUR VISIT TO 1900 E 12TH
Future Front’s Community Studio is located at 1900 E. 12th Street. From soil to cement, the 1940s building has a long history that precedes us (including its first owner Vera Barton and the We Rise mural).
WHERE TO PARK: The Future Front House has a large paid parking lot across the street and is directly accessible by bus line. There’s also free parking up and down the street and in surrounding neighborhoods. Carpool, if you can!
WHAT TO DO: The Future Front House is located within the historic East 12th Street District, which is home to many other creative spaces and businesses, as well as organizations like Six Square. Explore the District while you’re around.
AVAILABLE LANGUAGES — ASL interpreters can be provided upon request. Si necesita traducción al español para participar en este evento, envíenos un correo electrónico a hello@futurefronttexas.org.
OUR COMMUNITY SAFETY GUIDELINES —
All Future Front staff, volunteers and guests will be required to practice mutual respect, as well as demonstrate an alignment with Future Front’s code of conduct and values: futurefronttexas.org/values.
Capacity is limited to reduce crowding of any kind and all events will be held in primarily outdoor and open-air spaces or have access to proper ventilations and well-maintained A/C systems.
At Future Front events, all guests are expected to follow Austin-local health and safety guidelines for gatherings, as well as practice consideration with the consumption of tobacco, alcohol and any other legal, mind-altering or dangerous substances and objects. This includes:
As Future Front strives to be a good neighbor, we also discourage the use of tobacco products on the property of nearby businesses and residences, to improve air quality, throughout our events.
Tobacco use and electronic smoking device use are not permitted at any time within Future Front properties and event spaces at least 15 ft from entrances, exits, operational windows, or ventilation system intake vents.
Littering of tobacco-related products on the grounds or parking lots is also prohibited.
Concealed or open weapons and firearms (including handguns) are not allowed at any Future Front venues.
GOT QUESTIONS? Shoot us a note at hello@futurefronttexas.org. We're happy to help and will get back to you!
BEHIND THIS EXHIBIT
Homegrown in Austin, Future Front is an award-winning cultural space and public exhibition series—with women and LGBTQ+ creatives at the front.
As a 501c3 arts and culture nonprofit, we produce two annual community-led exhibitions, The Front Market and The Front Festival, platforming independent artists and creatives across disciplines in Texas. Beyond our flagship exhibitions, we host seasonal shows and workshops at our creative space in East Austin, welcoming 20,000+ visitors per year.
Through these programs and a diverse network of partnerships, we invite the public (including you) to dream of a future where local art and creativity thrive in Texas—where we see ourselves and our cultures reflected in our communities.
FUTURE FRONT IS SUPPORTED IN PART BY The City of Austin Economic Development Department, Tito’s Handmade Vodka, Texas Commission on the Arts, The LINE Hotel Austin, Pease Park Conservancy, Preservation Austin, Zoox, Movability, ART FOR ALL, Partiful, Moontower Rentals, Distribution Hall, Miscellaneous Rentals, Thirstday Tequila, the Red River Cultural District, Topo Chico, as well as Future Front’s donors and members.