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Art & Parks Tour
This sweet opportunity comes to us from the Downtown Austin Alliance, the Pease Park Conservancy, and Ride Bikes Austin – so we know it's a damned good thing indeed. Take the self-guided Art & Parks Tour to explore the best of what Downtown Austin art and parks have to offer through this selection of curated murals, artworks, and green spaces. You can sign up anytime, so click that URL and get ready to learn the most vibrantly visual parts of your city soon – live and in person. -
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Visual Arts
Landmarks: Self-Guided Walking Tour
Use your smartphone to access self-guided tours of the outdoor public art sited by UT's award-winning Landmarks program any time you feel like it. BONUS: There's also a free, docent-led tour starting at Marc Quinn's "Spiral of the Galaxy" (1501 Red River) on Sun., Jan. 8, 11am.
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Visual Arts
Captivating Colors: A Group Exhibition
There are entire college courses and certification programs for color theory, aka color science, delving into how colors interact and affect our perceptions and emotions. Fascinating stuff, really – part of why so many restaurants use warm colors like red, yellow, and orange in their branding is due to their tendency to stimulate the appetite. For this group exhibition featuring over 40 Austin artists, Art for the People showcases pieces where “color is not just aesthetic but an active agent shaping meaning and mood.” Visit with artists at a noon-5pm opening celebration on Saturday, June 14, or catch the exhibit sometime this summer and experience color in a new light. – Kat McNevinsThrough August 15 -
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Visual Arts
Jiab Prachakul: Sweet Solitude
Whoever says Austin isn’t a fine art town can get the hell out of here. We continually break artistic ground with innovative and international taste. The Contemporary once again adds to that rep by hosting artist Jiab Prachakul’s first solo museum show. Born in Thailand, living in France, and with a solid film background behind her, Prachakul’s work has a bold style and clear point of view. Heavy graphic lines and soul-stirring colors fill her art. Each moment could be a film still, each stroke staking her claim on a far-too-Western art world. Widely accessible but intensely intimate, Prachakul’s scenes beg for close inspection. Join the Contemporary, and the artist herself, in examining her offerings during Friday’s opening night festivities or in conversation on Saturday, Feb. 1. – Cat McCarreyThrough August 3 -
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Laguna Gloria
This local treasure of a venue, run by those Contemporary Austin folks who also bring us the Jones Center shows Downtown, is all about the outdoors – which is perfect for these trickily navigated times of ours, n'est-ce pas? Recommended: Stop by and breathe in the air, enjoy the lawns and gardens and the many examples of world-class sculpture arrayed across the property, and (as Frankie used to say) r-e-l-a-x.Thu.-Fri., 9am-noon; Sat.-Sun., 9am-3pm -
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Visual Arts
Michael Velliquette: “The Distance Within Us”
Slow down, stroll the gardens, enjoy a specialty cocktail, and see sculptures nestled in the green gardens at Umlauf this summer. Velliquette’s solo exhibition shows off his largest presentation of sculptures made of paper and powder-coated metal. These works invite visitors to take a moment to breathe and focus on the present moment, with an awareness of the shared human experience. “It’s about reaching inward and outward at once, and the ways that symbolic forms can guide us toward greater awareness and connection,” Velliquette said. – Sammie SeamonThrough August 22 -
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Museum of Illusions
Enter the fascinating world of illusions in this new venue that boasts a stunning array of intriguing visual, sensory, and educational experiences among new, unexplored optical wonderments.$20-24.11010 Domain #100 -
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Visual Arts
The Museum of Fine Arts, Austin
Art by Charles Walter, Benjamin Bayne, and other international, national, and local artists.Sundays, 3-5pm. Donations accepted.1638 E. Second #326 -
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The Museum of Natural & Artificial Ephemerata
This place, ah, it's one of our favorite places in the entire city; and of course they're properly corona-closed. But check 'em out online right now – it's a rich, wonder-filled website – to whet your appetite for when things get back to … uh … are we still calling it "normal," these days? -
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Visual Arts
Valerie Fowler’s “Entanglements” & Benné Rockett’s “Grown in Darkness”
It’s a pleasure to see Austin’s bevy of talented working artists grow and change over the years, exploring new material and thematic fixations. Valerie Fowler is one such mainstay of the scene, and her new summer show at Lydia Street Gallery finds her meditating on the interconnectedness of nature and humanity with signature meticulous attention to detail. In “Entanglements: You Too Are Part of This,” she renders birds’ nests and vines in dazzling Technicolor. Under the same roof, Benné Rockett, an Austin art therapist who’s spent the better part of a decade between Mérida, Yucatan, and her hometown of New Orleans, offers mixed-media encaustic works that render flora and fauna in three dimensions. Watch these works interact with one another starting Saturday, May 24, through to August 10. – Lina FisherThrough August 10 -
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Visual Arts
Words and Wonder: Rediscovering Children’s Literature
One of the pleasures of having a first-rate research center and archive in town is how the Harry Ransom Center will regularly comb through its own vast holdings and hand-pick gems to present in a new context. Hence the HRC’s latest exhibit, “Words and Wonder: Rediscovering Children’s Literature,” which pulls from its manuscript, art, photography, film, and performing arts holdings to spotlight early 20th-century authors and illustrators catering to a young readership. The exhibit includes magic lantern slides from Aesop’s Fables, John Tenniel’s illustrations of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, and Ernest H. Shepard’s indelible images from the Hundred Acre Wood, among other treats. Runs through August 17. – Kimberley JonesThrough August 17 -
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“Dog Days”
When the profound connection between dog and human has become fetishized and monetized for clicks, where’s a soulful dog person to go? Why not this group exhibition, which pays sweet tribute to our four-legged fam? Referencing the origins of “dog days” as a time of unrest in ancient times, DORF curators Sara Vanderbeek and Eric Manche are using the show to advance a different narrative: “that in a time of global uncertainty and rising temperatures, the steady, loving presence of a dog can be a grounding force – a source of comfort, stability, and meaning.” Friday’s pet-friendly opening reception will have on-site adoptions, live dog portrait painting by Ami Plasse, and a doggy dance party with DJ Dana Scully. – Kimberley JonesOpening night, May 23; runs through Sept. 6 -
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Events
“Roots Unveiled: Exploring the Chinese Experience”
Among the many anti-civil rights bills creeping their way through the Texas Legislature is Senate Bill 17, which would bar Chinese and many other Asian citizens from buying land here. Denounced by detractors as racist and reminiscent of 19th-century laws targeting Asian immigrants, its 2023 origins, along with growing anti-Asian sentiment after the pandemic, inspired Houston artist Jane Xu to found the multi-city Asian American Art & Culture Initiative and initiate this multidisciplinary exhibit. Curated by renowned international independent curator Sylvia XuHua Zhan, it brings in-depth research and archives along with work from a wide range of artists to offer a look at the rich history of Chinese Americans in Texas. Opening reception is Sunday, May 18, noon. – Kat McNevinsThrough August 31; opening reception, May 18 -
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Visual Arts
“The Floating World: Tokyo to Texas”
Step into a colorful space filled with music, dance, and Daryl Howard’s exhibition of Japanese woodblock prints. The Central Texas artist will be displaying his ukiyo-e inspired collection of surreal landscapes and vibrant florals. There will be Japanese appetizers, drinks, and cocktails for viewers to enjoy. Make sure to enter the raffle to win a $150 gift card, good for all Uchi restaurants in Austin. Traditional taiko drummers are scheduled to perform for this celebration of Japanese and Japanese-American culture, free and open to the public. – Sammie SeamonThrough September 7