Presented with Deep Vellum, Perspective 6 welcomes you to a conversation with Dallas art critics, Chukwudi Ukonne and Emma S. Ahmad. Moderated by Deep Vellum programming director, Madison Ford, the dialogue will explore how art writers translate their viewing experience to the page; their considerations of art, artist, and audience; and what they are excited about in the art world right now, as critics based in Texas. 

Part of Deep Vellum’s Deep Ellum Block Party activations with Deep Ellum Art Row.

Following the discussion, guests are welcome to stay for Perspective 6's open studio.

Chukwudi Ukonne is an essayist, poet and researcher based in Dallas, Texas. His practice engages contemporary visual art and literature as sites through which questions of faith, memory, and cultural inheritance can be examined. Through this interdisciplinary approach, his writing situates individual experiences within larger conversations about diasporic identity and the politics of perspective. In 2025, Ukonne won the inaugural Cluley Projects Arts Writing Mentorship Award and was an Artsit-in-Residence at Arts Mission Oak Cliff and the Cedars Union. His essays and criticism have appeared in Glasstire, Isele Magazine and The Republic Journal.

Emma S. Ahmad is a writer and editor based in Dallas, Texas. She holds an MA in Art History and her writing can be found in regional and international magazines and journals. She is a regular contributor to Glasstire and Southwest Contemporary. By day she works at the Nasher Sculpture Center and by night can you can find her penning voraciously by candlelight when she’s not busy catering to the every whim of her two spoiled cats. 

Madison Ford is a Texas-based writer, editor, and actor. Her work has appeared in Southwest Review, Texas Monthly, Southwest Contemporary, Glasstire, the Brooklyn Rail, and elsewhere. She is the programming director at Deep Vellum Publishing and holds an MFA in fiction writing from The New School.