The UCCS Visiting Artists & Critics Series features a lineup of presentations by artists and critics of national and international significance. The program’s goal is to foster understanding and appreciation of contemporary art through dialogue and critical conversations. Each VACS lecture takes place in the Chapman Foundation Recital Hall, next door to the Marie Walsh Sharpe Gallery in the Ent Center for the Arts. High-quality video recordings of each lecture are made public and archived on GOCA’s digital content platform within two weeks of each event (GOCAdigital.org).

Over the past decade, the series co-produced by the UCCS Galleries of Contemporary Art and UCCS Visual Art & Art History programs has invited artists and scholars to the UCCS campus to present public lectures and meet with undergraduate students in classes and workshop settings.

The series is generously supported by the CU President’s Fund for the Humanities, Colorado Creative Industries, UCCS Student Government Association, and the Bee Vradenburg Foundation.

2025-2026 EVENTS

Thursday, October 23rd, 2025, 6 - 7 p.m.

Chapman Recital Hall, Ent Center for the Arts

Karla García is the 2025 Female Emerging Artists Residency Series (F.E.A.R.S.) artist. This residency series is an experimental program that invites artists early in their professional careers to UCCS to participate in a residency, solo-exhibition, and academic classes. F.E.A.R.S. is now a collaborative initiative between the UCCS Visual Arts Department (VAPA) and GOCA.

Karla García (1977,  Juárez, Chihuahua, Mexico) is a Texas-based artist originally from Mexico. Her ceramic sculptural installations are rooted in her Mexican heritage and informed by personal and cultural memory, historical research, and philosophy. She explores the resilience of the human spirit and the transformative effects of the environment on the land we share.

García earned an MFA in Ceramics and a Certificate in Museum Education from the University of North Texas. She is a Sandhills Institute Artist Fellow in Nebraska and has exhibited in museums such as the Nasher Sculpture Center, the Old Jail Art Center in Texas, and a bi-national exhibition at the Chamizal National Memorial and the Museum of Archeology and History of El Chamizal on both sides of the Texas/Mexico border. Her recent projects include Grass Flower, a ceramic installation at Lora Reynolds Gallery in Austin, TX, and a residency at the University of Colorado Springs.