The subtle, often invisible connections between people and their environments are the focus of a new exhibition at the ARTx3 Campus.
“Voices in the Space of Time” by Maria Botti Villegas opens Thursday with a reception from 5-7 p.m. in the Ben J. Altheimer Gallery of the Arts & Science Center for Southeast Arkansas, 701 S. Main St. The event is free and open to the public.
In “Voices,” Villegas listens to the unspoken stories revealed through gestures, glances and touch, exploring the quiet interactions between the body and place. By capturing these silent dialogues and the tension between opposites like silence and voice or light and shadow, the artist seeks to make visible the feelings of longing and belonging embedded in memory and experience, according to a news release.
Muralist, illustrator, and multidisciplinary artist, Villegas was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina, and lives in El Dorado. She holds a five-year degree from the Pueyrredón School of Fine Arts in her native country. After college, she began as a pen-and-ink illustrator and educator in Argentina. She first exhibited her work in New York in 1991.
In 1992, Villegas joined the Arkansas Arts Council Artist-in-Education roster. She has been a teaching artist at the South Arkansas Arts Center Arts Academy in El Dorado for 30 years. She is the recipient of the 2023 Governor’s Arts Award for Arts in Education.
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As a working artist in the United States, Villegas has participated in numerous exhibits and competitions in Arkansas, Louisiana and other states, winning numerous awards. Her work is part of the 2025 exhibition of the Arkansas Arts Council’s “Small Works on Paper” and has been selected for the 2026 edition. In spring 2025, the South Arkansas Arts Center featured her in a solo show, “Habitats and Mutable Places.”
Villegas is featured in “Lasting Impressions: 35 Years Of Celebrating Arkansas Women Artists,” a book recently published in celebration of the 35th anniversary of the Arkansas Committee of the National Museum of Women in the Arts.
As a muralist, Villegas has designed and painted 30 public murals in Arkansas and Louisiana. Villegas became a U.S. citizen in 2004. Learn more about Villegas and her work at mariabottivillegas.com.
Villegas’ exhibition of 21 works will be on view through Feb. 21. Gallery hours are 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesdays through Fridays, and 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturdays. The exhibition is sponsored by the Kline Family Foundation.
For more information, contact Shakeelah Rahmaan, interim curator and programs director, at srahmaan@artx3. org, call (870) 536-3375, or visit artx3.org/exhibitions/ maria-botti-villegas-voicesin-the-space-of-time.