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Local arts space Dallas Contemporary (DC) has launched the NTX Graduate Student Program, a new initiative focused on provide mentorship and networking opportunities for 13 hand-selected students in the inaugural cohort.

Meadows’ own Taylor Cleveland and Sharmeen Uqaili, current MFA students in the Division of Art, are among the 13 graduate students selected. Matthew Higgs, the Director and Chief Curator of New York alternative art space White Columns, was the guest curator for this year’s cohort. Higgs visited almost 30 graduate student studios and selected the 13 artists from those studios to be showcased in an exhibition at DC.

A few of Uqaili’s pieces selected for the NTX Graduate Student Program.

“I am both proud and thrilled that two of our graduate students have been selected for the inaugural cohort of this exciting program, especially given the opportunity to work with an esteemed curator,” says Nishiki Sugawara-Beda, the director of graduate studies for Meadows’ Division of Art. “The chance to engage not only with other graduate students from universities in the DFW area, but also to gain insight into how the professional art world operates and to participate in its discourse, will be invaluable.”

DC is a non-collecting arts space, also known as a kunsthalle, that presents contemporary artwork through many forms including exhibitions, performances and public programs. Their curatorial mission is to push boundaries and challenge viewers to expand their definitions of art while exploring the many forms contemporary art can take.

The myriad of forms that contemporary art can take is demonstrated in Cleveland and Uqaili’s works. While both were selected for DC’s NTX Graduate Student Program, their art utilizes different skillsets and are created with different mediums. Cleveland’s practice navigates the collision of technology, culture, and social systems, and his work engages with a variety of mediums, primarily incorporating AI-based and technological processes, digital media, and experiential installations. Uqaili’s art bridges the seen and the unseen, with her primary medium being ink and Gouache, an opaque watercolor paint, on wood.

Additional pieces by Cleveland displayed at his recent show at Ro2.

Alongside Cleveland and Uqaili, the inaugural DC NTX Graduate Student Program cohort also includes MFA students from Texas Christian University, Texas Woman’s University, University of North Texas, The University of Texas at Arlington, and The University of Texas at Dallas.

In addition to the exposure of the exhibition, one of the cohort’s MFA students will receive The McReynolds Award, a grant of $8,000. Open University, the exhibition featuring the cohort, will be on view at DC from January 24 to March 9, 2025.