2026Mums
$#%! ShowLUBBOCK · TEXAS
24:00:00
One prompt. Twenty-four hours to make, install and light a whole exhibition. Doors open at First Friday.
- Also called
- Stuff I Made Today
- Since
- February 2014
- Where
- 5&J Gallery at CASP, Lubbock
About
What it is
The $#%! Show is a time-limited group exhibition that opens the year at the 5&J Gallery, the exhibition space of CASP (the Charles Adams Studio Project) in downtown Lubbock. Invited artists from Texas, New Mexico and Oklahoma get a prompt, then have 24 hours to make the work, hang it, light it and open the show to the public on the Lubbock First Friday Art Trail.
It started in February 2014 because of a last-minute cancellation at 5&J. A few artists offered to fill the slot with a material-based, time-constrained show. That first one was made entirely of cardboard, built on site in the gallery. It has come back almost every January since, and CASP now lists it as one of the gallery's signature programs.
Artist and curator Hannah Dean founded the show and has curated, co-curated or organized every edition. The prompt has been a material (cardboard, clothing, found art), a theme (leisure, ring, weather, mums), a random object in a box, and once a team rivalry: cats against dogs.
- −24:00
The prompt
The curators reveal a material or theme. Some years artists get a couple of weeks' notice; some years they find out when they walk in.
- −23:59
Make it
Everything is made in the gallery, on the lot outside, or in a borrowed corner of a studio. Install, lighting and wall text are part of the deadline.
- 00:00
Open the doors
The show opens to the public that evening on the First Friday Art Trail and stays up as the first 5&J exhibition of the year.
“This reality-TV-like, pressure-cooker set up isn’t really meant to tap into artists’ oeuvres. Rather, it intends to challenge the artists in an immediate sense, and maybe act as foil to their usual process.”
Hannah Dean, Glasstire, 2018
Upcoming
$#%! Show 2027
Friday,
January 8, 2027Opening on the First Friday Art Trail
5&J Gallery at CASP · 602 Avenue J, Lubbock
ThemeTBA
Theme and instructions are announced to artists closer to the date.
Curators
- Hannah Dean
- Christina Rees
- Chad Plunket
- Maisie Marie Alford
Artists (so far)
- Zach Morriss
- Eli James Ragland
- Jesse Whitley
- Rachel Gililland
- Ryder Richards
- Alberto Careaga
- Jimmy Peterson
- Emily Peacock
- Matthew Williams
Archive
Past shows
2025Weather
Curators: Hannah Dean and Christina Rees. Artists: BC Gilbert, Sara Peso White, Emily Peacock, Sangmi Yoo, Jesse Whitley, John Chinn, Matthew Williams, Chad Plunket, Zach Morriss, Jon Whitfill, Josué del Fresco, Ryder Richards, Harrison Brooks, Nathalie Lawrence and Dirk Fowler.
2024Cats vs. Dogs
Guest curator Christina Rees split the artists into two teams, cat and dog. Rees is the former editor-in-chief of Glasstire and a winner of the national Rabkin Prize for Art Criticism.
2023The Year 2050
Guest curator Christina Rees. Artists worked in small teams on the prompt “The Year 2050.”
Teams included: Maisie Alford and Zach Morriss · Maisie Alford and Linda Cullum · Sangmi Yoo, Dirk Fowler and James W. Johnson · Carol Flueckiger, Lindsay Maestri and Linda Cullum · Matthew Williams, George Zupp and Keegan Hollis · Nathalie Lawrence, Jessica Lambert and Danielle East.
2022The Box
Eleven invited artists met at 5&J 24 hours before opening. Each chose a box holding a random object, then responded to it to make, install and light their work before the doors opened.
2020Ring
Artists made work within a 24-hour window on the theme “ring.”
2019Leisure
Artists made work on the theme “leisure” in the 24 hours before the show opened.
2018Found Art
With two weeks' notice, artists were told to use “found art”: items and images that had already been considered art. Several worked from thrift-store paintings. Cody Arnall made a video of himself copying Bruce Nauman's Walking in an Exaggerated Manner Around the Perimeter of a Square. Maisie Marie Alford stacked a pile of Félix González-Torres candies, brought from the Guggenheim, in the corner of the gallery.
Curators: Hannah Dean and Chad Plunket. Artists: Maisie Marie Alford, Cody Arnall, Kyle Bassett, Jonah Bresley, Aaron Hegert, Sydney Kim, Lindsay Maestri, Zach Morriss, Jimmy Peterson and Jon Whitfill.
2017Clothing
Artists made work within 24 hours from the material or theme “clothing.”
2014Cardboard
The first one. A last-minute cancellation left 5&J empty, and a group of artists filled it with a material-based, time-constrained show. Everything was made of cardboard, and everyone worked in the gallery, on site. Scotty Hensler was on cardboard-fetching duty.
Artists
Who makes it
Hannah DeanFounder. Curator, co-curator or organizer every year.
Chad PlunketIn every show, as artist or co-curator.
Jon WhitfillIn every show, as artist or co-curator.
Harrison BrooksIn every show.
Everyone, through the years
● repeat participant · Co-curators over the years include Scotty Hensler, Jon Whitfill, Chad Plunket, Christina Rees and Maisie Marie Alford.
Press
Press & publications
- 2018-01-06
$#%& Show 2018 at the 5&J Gallery, Lubbock
Glasstire. A photo essay by Hannah Dean on the found-art edition. It first ran in slightly different form in The Bowerbird, a Lubbock art blog.
- 2023
$#%& Show 2023 zine
The printed record of “The Year 2050” edition. PDF.
- 2024
$#%& Show 2024 zine
The printed record of the cats vs. dogs edition. PDF.
- Ongoing
5&J Gallery signature programs
CASP. Lists Stuff I Made Today as the annual collaborative show that opens the 5&J exhibition series each January.
Awards & collections
In the collection
Félix González-Torres Foundation, New York
A photograph of Maisie Marie Alford's 2018 piece is in the foundation's collection.
Maisie Marie Alford
after Félix González-Torres ‘Untitled’ (Public Opinion) with purple, 2018
Félix González-Torres candies. Made for $#%! Show 2018, theme “found art.”
Visit
5&J Gallery
Address
CASP, the Charles Adams Studio Project
602 Avenue J
Lubbock, TX 79401
Hours
Tuesday to Saturday, 10 AM to 5 PM
Openings on the First Friday Art Trail
Contact
806.928.4529
info@casp-arts.org
casp-arts.org · @casp_lbk