The ARTx3 Campus will host an opening reception for the exhibition “Maria Botti Villegas: Voices in The Space of Time” from 5-7 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 16, at The Arts & Science Center for Southeast Arkansas, 701 S. Main St. The event is free and open to the public.

“Voices in the Space of Time” focuses on the subtle, often invisible connections between people and their environments. The artist 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.

The exhibition will be on view in ASC’s Ben J. Altheimer Gallery through Feb. 21, 2026. 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.

Professional muralist, illustrator and multidisciplinary artist Maria Botti Villegas was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina. As a working artist in the United States, she 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 show. In March 2025, she had a solo exhibition at the South Arkansas Arts Center in her longtime home of El Dorado. She has been a teaching artist at the South Arkansas Arts Center for 30 years, and received the 2023 Governor’s Arts Award for Artist in Education. As a muralist, Villegas has designed and painted 30 public murals in Arkansas and Louisiana. Learn more about her at mariabottivillegas.com.

For more information, contact Shakeelah Rahmaan, interim curator and programs director, at srahmaan@artx3.org or call 870-536-3375. Webpage: artx3.org/exhibitions/maria-botti-villegas-voices-in-the-space-of-time

Artwork: Botti Villegas, Maria, "Emanations of Crystals from a Metallic Seed"