Banner with four images - one of a dance performance, one of women chatting at an art exhibit, one of a man at a pottery wheel, and one of an art teacher and child painting together.

Julia C. Butridge Gallery

The Julia C. Butridge Gallery is located in the heart of the arts district adjacent to the Long Center and Butler Park at the Dougherty Arts Center, a multi-cultural community arts center providing opportunities for creative expression to citizens for over 41 years. Visitors enjoy an exceptional 2,000 square feet of exhibit space in the main gallery, and an additional 480 square feet in newly renovated gallery space. The natural collision of creative activity at the arts center contributes to the gallery’s longstanding reputation among the arts community as an accessible and nurturing venue and incubator, ideal for emerging and established artists. The gallery is free and open to the public.

On Display

An installation of flowers made from fabric. Grouped together on one portion of a wall and slowly creeping across the wall and spacing themselves apart.

Aileen Chen, If We Make It Bloom, installation of upcycled materials

Metamorphosis: The Alchemy of Waste

Aileen Chen
March 7 – May 9, 2026

Artist Reception: Wednesday, March 11, 2026, 7-9pm
Artist Talk: Wednesday, April 8, 2026, 7-9pm
RSVP for the Artist Talk

“Metamorphosis” is a collection of works by artist Aileen Chen that explores the beauty and possibilities in giving new life to "waste." Reclaimed fabrics are sculpted into vibrant blooms. Unwanted objects transform into striking compositions. Chen’s work reminds us of our collective responsibility to preserve our planet, and our own ability to undergo renewals and contribute to a more resilient, harmonious world.

Instagram: @nowasteinnature

$A painting of three people like figures made of fractured shapes.$

Sara Hannon, We’ve been taught to listen, acrylic on canvas, 2023

Connective Tissue

Sara Kate Hannon
March 7 – May 9, 2026

Artist Reception: Wednesday, March 11, 2026, 7-9pm
Artist Talk: Wednesday, April 8, 2026, 7-9pm
RSVP for the Artist Talk

Connective Tissue is an exhibition that explores the unseen threads that bind us to one another and to ourselves. Through layered paintings and drawings, this body of work examines themes of identity, relationships, and the emotional landscapes we navigate daily. The abstracted forms—fragmented faces, reaching hands, and overlapping bodies—become metaphors for the complex and often fragile connections that hold us together. The show invites viewers to reflect on these invisible bonds, offering a moment of introspection into how we connect, disconnect, and seek understanding.

Website: www.sarakatehannon.com
Instagram: @sally_juniper

A painting of a patchwork of squares filled with abstract brush strokes and shapes.

Rakhee Jain Desai, Coming Together, Handmade inks from Marigold, Sappanwood, Lac, Pomegranate, Cutch & Madder, 2025

Build Me A Garden: From Soil to Surface Labor, Lineage, and Living Materials

Rakhee Jain Desai
March 7 – April 18, 2026

Artist Reception: Wednesday, March 11, 2026, 7-9pm
Artist Talk: Wednesday, April 8, 2026, 7-9pm
RSVP for the Artist Talk

Build Me A Garden: From Soil to Surface explores how relationships with land are developed and reimagined through labor, lineage and living materials. The exhibition uses craft techniques, abstraction, materiality, and sculptural gestures to give form to the intangible: memory, longing, belonging, and the emotional relationship between land and culture.

Drawing from her lineage in Rajasthan, India, Rakhee Jain Desai brings heritage textile knowledge, natural dyeing, mordants, resist techniques, and ecological processes into conversation with a land that did not birth these traditions but now holds its people. Through the acts of growing dyes in Texas soil, harvesting plant matter, and working with natural materials, Rakhee explores what it means to carry cultural knowledge across geographies and to plant it in new ground, building a garden of evolving culture and craft practices where color emerges from the chemistry of natural materials, soil, water, and time.

Website: www.rakheejaindesai.com
Instagram: @rakheejaindesai

Upcoming Exhibits

Totally Cool Totally Art

End of Year Showcase
On Display: April 25 – May 7, 2026

Awards Ceremony: Thursday, May 7, 6-8pm

Totally Cool Totally Art’s annual Teen Art Exhibition showcases over 200 works made by Austin’s teen community. Part of the City of Austin Parks & Recreation Department, Totally Cool Totally Art (TCTA) is a unique enrichment program providing free classes where Teens learn various art techniques by working directly alongside professional artists. 

To learn more about TCTA, visit their website: https://www.austintexas.gov/department/totally-cool-totally-art

Two images of artwork. The first an abstract work of art that is reminiscent of wings and a flower. The second artwork is abstract as well and reminiscent of hardware and digital components.

Left: Jamie Spinello, Proteanopsis, 2024, Fabric and steel
Right: Kristen Van Patten, Analagous Signals, 2023, Stoneware

Morphology & Modularity 

Jamie Spinello and Kristen Van Patten
On Display: May 16 – June 27, 2026

Artist Reception: May 20, 2026, 7-9pm
Artist Talk: June 24, 2026

“Morphology and Modularity” is a dual exhibition of sculptures, paintings, and ceramics by Jamie Spinello and Kristen Van Patten. Both artists create abstract works, which draw inspiration from their separate interests but related working methods. Spinello is inspired by the relationships between structures of plants, insects, and geological structures, and Van Patten from relationships between architecture, mechanics, and landscape.

Many of their works contain modular structures, shapes, and patterns that can be reconfigured or interchanged. Together, the two explore morphology and modularity, creating two cohesive bodies of work.

Website: www.JamieSpinello.com, www.KristenVanPatten.com

Instagram: @jamiespinello, @kristenvanpatten

A vibrant abstract artwork with textures and elements reminiscent of things found in nature

Victoria Majesta Marquez, Inkblot, 2025, Acrylic on canvas

Realms 

Victoria Majesta Marquez
On Display: May 16 – June 27, 2026

Artist Reception: May 20, 2026 7-9pm
Artist Talk: June 24, 2026

“Realms” presents a vibrant exploration of nature and surrealism, drawing inspiration from oceans, animals, and microscopic life, to create imagined realms filled with fluid, ever-shifting patterns and textures. Through spontaneous processes like decalcomania and layered collage, Marquez allows textures to unfold and evolve, developing intricate compositions inspired by both macro and micro forms in nature. Using a bold, polychromatic palette and a maximalist approach, the work invites viewers into psychedelic, dreamlike environments where imagination and reality merge into immersive worlds to explore, play, and engage with.

Website: www.victoriamajestamarquez.com

Instagram: @tori.majesta

Two images of artwork. The first abstract and colorful with shapes alluding to plants. The second artwork abstract circular shapes with many tones of red.

Left: Anita Horton, State Highway 71, 2024, Acrylic on Stonehenge Paper
Right: Charlotte Seifert, Sunset, 2025, Monotype

Land and Sea 

Anita Horton and Charlotte Seifert
On Display: May 16 – June 27, 2026

Artist Reception: May 20, 2026, 7-9pm
Artist Talk: June 24, 2026

“Land and Sea” features the work of Anita Horton and Charlotte Seifert, whose practices engage deeply with natural realms from complementary perspectives. Their combined work demonstrates a love for Texas, its people, and their activities, on both land and sea, as it explores the dynamic relationship between terrestrial and aquatic environments.

Website: www.charlotteseifert.com

Instagram: @anitajohorton