We recently INCREASED funding for our artist residency program in 2026. This guide is intended to provide more information about the goals of the Input/Output Artist Residency Program, who it is for, and the resources available to participating artists. There is no fee to apply. We will be welcoming a Summer and a Fall resident artist/team in 2026. Watch this space or sign up for our newsletter (link in bio) to know when applications open up!!! Summer applications will open later this month.
@rachelsalcidoo@artsbyfab@juliomtzart hard at work this week installing their exhibition “Cruces/Crossings” opening May 2nd 6-9pm! We can’t wait to share with yall this multilayered installation mapping and honoring the history of border crossings from California to Texas.
🚨OPENING RECEPTION MAY 2ND 6-9PM. Cage Match Project is pleased to present its Round 26 exhibition titled “Cruces/Crossings” by Rachel Salcido, Fabiana Muñoz, and Julio Martinez. The artists will cover the cage’s exterior using handmade paper embedded with tomatillo leaves. A continuous line tracing the U.S.–Mexico border will encircle its surface, mapped through the leaves in the pulp and reinforced with tomatillo woodcut prints. These prints act as visual markers, like pixels, indicating sites of surveillance such as checkpoints and border patrol infrastructure, both known and emerging. The surface will also be punctured with small openings. A bright interior light will shine through these points, marking sites of passage, loss, and connection along the border. Together, they trace migratory routes, honor those who have died crossing, and illuminate transborder relationships between cities that defy this imposed boundary. EXHIBITION DATES ALL DAY MAY 2ND & 3RD
*This project is supported in part by an Elevate Grant of Austin Arts, Culture, Music, & Entertainment.
** Cage Match Project is a fiscally sponsored project of The Museum of Human Achievement (MoHA)
We are excited to announce our Spring 26 Open Call winners: Rachel Salcido, Fabiana Muñoz, and Julio Martinez. Stay tuned for more info on the upcoming exhibition opening May 2nd and check out the artist's bios below!
Rachel Salcido (b. El Paso, TX) is a crip Xicane painter and printmaker whose work documents colonial power structures manifesting through the natural and manufactured environments of the U.S.–Mexico border. Their work uses the visual borderland vernacular of fences, bridges, highways, and waterways to acknowledge the border as a transitional space defined by cultural liminality and contextualized by intersectionality, matriarchy, and physical labor. Salcido holds a BFA in Studio Art and a BA in Art History from the University of Texas at Austin and is currently pursuing a Master of Science in Information Studies with a focus on digital archives. They currently have a solo show, Cuerpos Fronterizos, on view at the Disability Cultural Center at the University of Texas at Austin.
Fabiana Muñoz (b. Guadalajara, Mexico) is a Xicana artist based in Austin, Tx. Having immigrated to the United States at age 11 from Guatemala, Muñoz's practice celebrates Latinx and Chicano culture while exploring the tensions of paradox and dualities within identity. Working across painting, sculpture, and printmaking, she reflects on home, belonging, shelter, and borders, exploring the liminal space of “ni de aquí ni de allá” and inviting deeper consideration of multicultural existence in an increasingly fluid, internet-shaped world. Munoz earned a Bachelors in Fine Arts from the University of Texas in 2025.
Julio Martinez is a Xicano sculptor, photographer, and transmedia artist from the borderlands between Tamaulipas, Mexico and the Rio Grande Valley. His work rooted in rasquachismo highlights the underrepresented and marginalized by exploring his experiences with immigration, Xicano identity, and manual labor. He holds a BFA in Studio Art and a BS in Arts and Entertainment Technologies from the University of Texas at Austin.
This project is supported in part by an Elevate Grant of Austin Arts, Culture, Music, & Entertainment.
As we reach the conclusion of the first year of the I/O residency and Round 25: A Body Without Organs by @javierrrobelo Cage Match Project would like to announce our new Newsletter! The link is in our bio! Sign up for upcoming information on open calls, exhibition programming, artist interviews, and the Input/Output Artist Residency program!
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#opencall #austin #art #austinartists gallery
Time is running out! Have a last look at A Body without Organs and enjoy some free drop-in drawing lessons (please come draw with me) in and around the cage. This Saturday, January 10th, 1-4pm @ 3600 Lyons Rd, Austin, TX.
There will be drinks, sounds, and crayons. Bring a friend.
🗓️ Join us on January 10th from 1–4 PM at Cage Match Project for the final activation of A Body without Organs, I/O Artist-in-Residence @javierrrobelo invites visitors to participate in free, drop-in drawing sessions in and around the cage. Part art lesson, part performance, the activation explores drawing as an embodied, improvisational, and collaborative choreography.
Crayons, colored pencils, paper, and light refreshments will be provided.
This project is supported in part by the City of Austin Economic Development Department.
Couple scenes from performance #2 by our current I/O Residency Artist, @javierrrobelo , of his exhibition A BODY WITHOUT ORGANS. We are looking forward to his final performance #3 on January 10 2026!
Join us this Saturday for PART 2 in a trilogy of performances titled “A body without Organs” 6pm!!! By our newest I/O Residency artist, @javierrrobelo .
Opening reception 5-8pm, free to all, complimentary refreshments.
BTS of Round 25 A Body Without Organs Part ONE of a trilogy of performances by our latest I/O Residency Artist, @javierrrobelo . Performers will activate the installation within the cage as a labyrinthine playground, collaboratively reflecting on the fluid nature of being, within and beyond the limits of the body.
November 7th, performance at 730pm! There will be complimentary refreshments. Free to all.
I have been in residence @cagematchproject for the past two months, thinking about bodies, how we exist within them, and how we pour out of them; about self and other, and the other within ourself, about love, guts, bones; circles, strings, and mazes; about no beginnings, and no endings!
Come witness two performances! Free to all!
Part 1: Friday, Nov 7th, at 7:30pm
Part 2: Saturday, Nov 15th, at 6:00pm
The Opening Celebration coincides with the second part on November 15th, 5-8pm!
@ 3600 Lyons Road, Austin, TX
So much love to @lbriggsmoves , @balnagneclo , @v.morology , and Katherine for believing in my work, and bringing other worlds to life with me🌀
Cage Match Project is excited to welcome @javierrrobelo as the newest resident artist. Stay tuned for his exhibition in November featuring a trilogy of live performances.
The playful characters inhabiting his work bend over, twist, and stumble; they melt into each other, dissolve into the landscape, and are weathered by time. Across mediums, Robelo finds beauty in the pathetic, courage in vulnerability, and liberation in feeling out-of-place.
