The Wheeler Brothers
ULTERIOR MOTIFS NO. 16
September 19 – October 17, 2026
A Celebratory Texas Art Extravaganza. Twenty-seven years after Bryan and Jeff Wheeler launched Ulterior Motifs in Lubbock, the project returns after a ten-year pause. Ro2 Art presents the first chapter of Ulterior Motifs No. 16, a new iteration planned to continue across Texas.
Ulterior Motifs has never depended on a single style or generation. Its energy comes from bringing distinct artistic practices into proximity and allowing the differences to remain visible. No. 16 brings together sixteen established Texas artists, presenting individual works alongside drawings, paintings, and sculptures created through collaboration with the Wheeler Brothers.
These are sixteen fully developed practices, each compelling on its own. The collaborations create another layer: work moves back and forth between artists without erasing the character of either hand.
Several artists with long relationships to Ro2 are part of this broader Texas constellation, including Terry Hays, Erica Stephens, Gillian Bradshaw-Smith, and Carroll Swenson-Roberts. The result feels unmistakably Texas—not because it attempts to define Texas art, but because it demonstrates just how many different things Texas art can be.