UPCOMING EXHIBITION
Buried in the Yard
Guadalupe Najar’s First Solo Exhibition in Her Hometown of Austin, Opening Friday, October 23, 2026
DORF’s second annual Fellowship in Professional Practice (FiPP) exhibition explores girlhood, family, and displacement through re-imagined landscapes of an East-Austin yard
DORF is pleased to present Buried in the Yard, the first solo exhibition by artist Guadalupe Najar in her hometown. The Austin–born and Smithville, TX–based artist is the second Fellow in DORF’s Fellowship in Professional Practice (FiPP) program. The exhibition will be on view at DORF from October 23, 2026 through January 30, 2027, with an opening reception on Friday, October 23, 2026, from 7–10 PM.
Through vibrant ceramics, painting, found objects, and transplanted landscaping material and flora, Najar reimagines the yard of her East-Austin childhood homes with heightened make-believe. The boundaries of a fenced-in yard become a portal to an expansive inner world of labor, grief, and celebration. Ordinary objects become charged with mythology. The memories of a now paved over childhood yard come alive with possibility.
At the center of the exhibition is the yard—as both physical and psychological landscape– using aesthetics of making do —turning scarcity, precarity, and discarded materials into functional and expressive beauty. For Najar, yards reflect personal tastes and practical necessities while also revealing broader community cultures of accumulation, upkeep, congregation, and labor. Gardens, altars, toolsheds and other everyday objects of immigrant and working-class homes reflect back the families and multigenerational histories embedded within.
As Najar’s family homes change over time, so do the artworks shaped by these spaces, transformed by rapid development and displacement. The yard becomes a place where working class respectability, identity, and belonging come into direct confrontation with the pressures of gentrification and development. As the material landscape of the East Side shifts, Najar considers what is lost when the places that hold family histories disappear—and how memory can persist in the bodies, objects, stories, and fantasies of those who remain.
Guadalupe Najar, Mouth of the Serpent Tomb of my Heart, 2026, found object oven, ceramics, found fabrics, beads, glitter, yarn, and dry corn husks, 30" x 26" x 53", image courtesy of the artist and DORF.
Opening Reception:
Friday, October 23, 2026 | 7–10 PM
Exhibition Dates:
October 23, 2026 – January 30, 2027
Location:
DORF at Zilker Point, 218 South Lamar Blvd., Suite 140, Austin, TX 78704
Gallery Hours:
Saturdays, 12–5 PM, and by appointment
DORF is pleased to present Buried in the Yard, the first solo exhibition by artist Guadalupe Najar in her hometown. The Austin–born and Smithville, TX–based artist is the second Fellow in DORF’s Fellowship in Professional Practice (FiPP) program. The exhibition will be on view at DORF from October 23, 2026 through January 30, 2027, with an opening reception on Friday, October 23, 2026, from 7–10 PM.
Through vibrant ceramics, painting, found objects, and transplanted landscaping material and flora, Najar reimagines the yard of her East-Austin childhood homes with heightened make-believe. The boundaries of a fenced-in yard become a portal to an expansive inner world of labor, grief, and celebration. Ordinary objects become charged with mythology. The memories of a now paved over childhood yard come alive with possibility.
Guadalupe Najar, Behind the Muhly Grass (detail), 2026, broken lawn mower, felt, yard, glitter, beads, rubber tubing, and found fabric, 48" x 23" x 39", image courtesy of the artist and DORF.
At the center of the exhibition is the yard—as both physical and psychological landscape– using aesthetics of making do —turning scarcity, precarity, and discarded materials into functional and expressive beauty. For Najar, yards reflect personal tastes and practical necessities while also revealing broader community cultures of accumulation, upkeep, congregation, and labor. Gardens, altars, toolsheds and other everyday objects of immigrant and working-class homes reflect back the families and multigenerational histories embedded within.
As Najar’s family homes change over time, so do the artworks shaped by these spaces, transformed by rapid development and displacement. The yard becomes a place where working class respectability, identity, and belonging come into direct confrontation with the pressures of gentrification and development. As the material landscape of the East Side shifts, Najar considers what is lost when the places that hold family histories disappear—and how memory can persist in the bodies, objects, stories, and fantasies of those who remain.
Guadalupe Najar, PLAY PONIES: BATH TIME, 2025, found fabric, beads, and felt, 62" x 84", image courtesy Carrie Kenny and the artist.
“This work is not a direct replication of the memories it commemorates, but an imagined fantasy of a past childhood reality; where faults are minimized, grief is explosive, ants are noble and trees carry messages in the wind.”
This program is supported in part by the Emily Hall Tremaine Foundation, ACME, Mid-America Arts Alliance, and DORF’s generous community of fellows, volunteers, and donors.
Public Programming
COMING SOON
DORF will present a series of public programs in conjunction with Buried in the Yard, inviting audiences to further explore the exhibition’s themes of girlhood, family, grief, labor, and displacement. Programming details will be announced in our newsletter, and at www.dorfworld.org
ARTIST AND CURATOR BIOS
Artist: Guadalupe Najar
DORF Fellow in Professional Practice, Guadalupe Najar, image courtesy of the artist and DORF.
Guadalupe Najar is a multidisciplinary artist from Austin, Texas, who explores her familial legacy through crafting, collecting, and material heritage. Lupe’s intuitive practice engages with the material, geographical, and social meanings of fiber, ceramics, and found objects in mixed-media tapestries and sculptures. She received her BFA at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts at Tufts in 2024, and has since been selected for various artist-in-residence opportunities including the Watershed Ceramics Residency in Maine, Residence at Prizer Arts and Letters Gallery in Smithville, Texas, and for the summer of 2026, the Community Arts Residency at Alchemy Arts Center in Washington. She has exhibited locally and nationally including the Museum of Fine Arts Boston, Mass Gallery, Carbon Bloom, and Upfront Gallery.
Guadalupe Najar is the second fellow of DORF’s Fellowship in Professional Practice (FiPP), a year-long mentorship and professional development program supporting a Central Texas artist through the planning, production, curation, and presentation of a solo exhibition. FiPP combines individualized mentorship, professional training, studio visits, exhibition development, and equitable compensation.
Curator: Sara Vanderbeek
Founding Executive Director and Curator at DORF, Sara Vanderbeek, image courtesy DORF.
Sara Vanderbeek is the founding Executive Director and Curator of DORF, an artist-run contemporary art organization in Austin, Texas, which she co-founded with Eric Manche in 2018. Through DORF, she develops artist-centered exhibitions, fellowships, residencies, and culturally responsive programming that foster connection, experimentation, and community. Her curatorial and arts-organizing work includes developing public art collections and large-scale programs, including Salud-Arte: The Art of Healing at University Health in San Antonio and the Texas Municipal Retirement System collection in Austin.
Vanderbeek is also an interdisciplinary artist whose practice explores place, memory, motherhood, mental health, trauma, and healing through painting, printmaking, soft sculpture, textiles, and installation. Drawing from personal and collective histories, her work examines how identity is shaped by the places we inhabit and the systems, relationships, and memories embedded within them. Her work has been exhibited nationally at Tiger Strikes Asteroid Los Angeles, the Texas Biennial, Ohio State University’s Pearl Conard Gallery, Co-Lab Projects, Luminaria, and NYC Crit Club, among others.
Her work has received support from the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Emily Hall Tremaine Foundation, National Endowment for the Arts, Mid-America Arts Alliance, Creative Capital, Texas Commission on the Arts, and the City of Austin. She is a graduate of Rhode Island School of Design and has participated in residencies and professional-development programs including Anderson Ranch Arts Center and M-AAA’s Artist Leadership Fellowship.
Vanderbeek currently serves on the boards of Rally Austin and the City of Austin Joint Arts and Music Commissions Urban Core Land Use Working Group. Her work across artistic, curatorial, and civic spheres is grounded in questions of place, community, and how creative spaces shape our understanding of ourselves and one another.
Curatorial Fellow: Kalle Duncan
Regine Malibiran, Inaugural DORF Curatorial Fellow, image courtesy of the artist and DORF
Born and raised in San Antonio, Texas, Kalle Duncan is an Austin-based muralist, multidisciplinary artist, curator, and arts administrator. Her practice explores themes of grief, spirituality, matriarchy, and memory—narratives rooted in her Chicana heritage and lived experience. Duncan earned her BFA from the University of Texas at Austin in 2024, exhibiting in group shows across Texas at institutions including the McNay Art Museum, Carbon Bloom Gallery and the Visual Arts Center at the University of Texas.
As both an independent artist and a member of the Chroma Collective muralist cohort, Kalle has designed and executed ten public murals across the Austin area. Under her multidisciplinary brand Cheerleader Mafia, she bridges studio practice and civic leadership by facilitating community workshops, curating large-scale exhibitions, and coordinating vendor markets that prioritize place-making, shared memory, and local resilience.
About FiPP:
The DORF Fellowship in Professional Practice (FiPP) is a year-long mentorship program–beginning with professional development training and culminating with an end-of-year exhibition–designed to guide an artist through every step of planning, producing, curating, and marketing their solo exhibition at DORF. In January 2025, Intel Lastierre, the inaugural FiPP artist joined the 2025 Mid-America Arts Alliance (M-AAA) Artist Leadership Fellowship (ALF) cohort. This nomination-based, transformative program hones the professional skills of early-mid-career artist leaders across the region, offering unparalleled growth and networking opportunities. The FiPP artist receives a $5,000 honorarium from DORF and an additional $500 from M-AAA to help support their work.
About the DORF Curatorial Fellowship:
The DORF Fellowship in Professional Practice (FiPP) is a year-long mentorship program–beginning with professional development training and culminating with an end-of-year exhibition–designed to guide an artist through every step of planning, producing, curating, and marketing their solo exhibition at DORF. In January 2025, Intel Lastierre, the inaugural FiPP artist joined the 2025 Mid-America Arts Alliance (M-AAA) Artist Leadership Fellowship (ALF) cohort. This nomination-based, transformative program hones the professional skills of early-mid-career artist leaders across the region, offering unparalleled growth and networking opportunities. The FiPP artist receives a $5,000 honorarium from DORF and an additional $500 from M-AAA to help support their work.
Parking:
Paid parking is available in the Zilker Point garage (near DORF entrance on Toomey Road) at $5/hour (max $30). Additional public paid parking is available along Toomey Road west of the building.
Accessibility
ADA accessible parking is available at Zilker Point garage, with elevator access to DORF. DORF is also accessible via S. Lamar Blvd’s sidewalks.
DORF’s gallery is wheelchair accessible and stroller friendly. Onsite restrooms are wheelchair accessible with baby changing stations.
Service animals and friendly animals of most kinds are welcome at DORF!
Please check in at the Reception Desk or email us with questions or for assistance.
DORF:
218 South Lamar Blvd.
Suite 140
Austin, Texas, 78704.
ABOUT DORF
Founded in Austin in 2018, DORF is an artist-led contemporary arts organization dedicated to building a village of artists, advocates, and innovators through experimental contemporary art and culturally responsive programming. DORF creates opportunities for artists through exhibitions, fellowships, professional development, community programming, and advocacy, with a focus on affordability, access, and equity in the arts.
DORF’s current home at Zilker Point was established through a partnership with the City of Austin and private developers, providing the organization with a 1,062-square-foot creative space through a ten-year $1/year lease. The partnership creates a model for preserving affordable creative space within Austin’s rapidly changing cultural landscape.
We have received recognition in publications like Texas Monthly, Sightlines Magazine, The Austin Chronicle, Glasstire, Southwest Contemporary, and more, and received “Best New Experimental Art Gallery” in The Austin Chronicle.
For more information, contact us at dorf@dorfworld.org.
Acknowledgements
This program is supported in part by the Emily Hall Tremaine Foundation, ACME, Mid-America Arts Alliance, and DORF’s generous community of fellows, volunteers, and donors.
