Sebastião Salgado, bless his heart, trained as an economist. But, after a trip to Africa in the 1970's, he confirmed a fortunate/unfortunate talent for plucking photographic glory from the mundane, and even from the quietly horrific. Wisely, he stuck with it; Salgado is today considered one of the world's best documentary photographers. The new exhibit at AMoA, Workers, is filled with 62 of the artist's photos. ... [continue]

Print by Utagawa Hiroshige, courtesy of The Blanton B scene - Exquisite Visions of JapanFriday, July 11The Blanton Museum of Art (The University of Texas at Austin, MLK at Congress Ave.)$5 members, $10 non-members[info] | [tickets] "Simplicity is the badge of genius," wrote A. A. Milne (the Winnie the Pooh guy). This applies to Japanese woodblock prints, with their clean, sure lines and supersaturated palettes. Called ukiyo-e, which translates literally to "floating world pictures," these... [continue]

"I said, 'Aren't you the woman who was recently given a Fulbright?'" If you're a nerd for Paul Simon, you've been looking to drop this line at a party since the mid-80s. And you should totally do it if Shara K. Lange is in the room. Around this time last year, the Fulbright committee granted her an award and shipped her off to Morocco to film a documentary. She had recently graduated from UT's Radio, TV, and Film Department’s MFA program in production. Her thesis project, "The Way North," was in a stage of mid-completion, but that project is now finally wrapped up (much to our delight)! It premieres at AFS this Wednesday along with other UT films.... [continue]

Like Cornell, locals Libby Macalister and Jason Delaney have labored for years on these windows onto imagination; dozens of their own shadow boxes are up at Epoch coffee house until the 27th of January. They are lovely and intriguing, and we hope you get to see them. We also hope that you read this dynamic duo's wonderful musings on giant condoms and old dental x-rays. Drumroll, please... ... [continue]

Photo courtesy Sunyong ChungWorld-class porcelain artist Sunyong Chung will be participating in this weekend's E.A.S.T.. Enamored with her work, we conducted an interview with her last fall, but, er, neglected to publish it. (Journalism, shmurnalism.) Now, however, bear witness to all she reveals about the intricate nerikome technique used to ornament her plates and bowls. Also: some call/response regarding Sunyong's beliefs about continuity of form, and her experiences connecting with artists from other eras! Testify!...... [continue]

When Joseph Campbell said, "Follow your bliss," what artist Jason Hackenwerth heard was, "If you love blowing balloons, git up on it." And so he did. Today, Hackenwerth's latex balloon sculptures are highly sought after; they exude an organic, 20,000 Leagues kind of invertebrate charm. Several colorful, oxygen-plumped specimens will be on display at The Blanton Museum, "...until [the pieces] run out of air." That will likely be around mid-November, unless an evil-doing darts player...... [continue]

In collaboration with Fritz Haeg, a Los Angeles-based architect with a penchant for vegetables, Arthouse at the Jones Center plans to give your lawn a makeover—with your permission and eager participation, of course. The Congress Avenue institution is seeking a patch o' turf in front of an apartment/condo building in Austin on which to build a food-producing, artist-designed garden, otherwise known as an "Edible Estate." What do you have to lose by nominating your yard...... [continue]

M.I.A.'s Friday ACL performance felt so seductive because it was both spicy and sweet; but what else can you expect from a girl who salts and peppers her mango? She burst onto stage wearing pink pedal-pushers, white trainers, wrap-around glasses and war paint, all the while shimmying her heart out to Kala's "Bamboo Banga." Her dancing seemed confounded by tentative limb placement, and it marked her as one extremely sexy dork. (Hawt!) It's this...... [continue]

These works represent a small handful of the works that will be showing at Gallery Lombardi, starting this Thursday night. If you can't view the Flash slideshow above, an alternate version appears after the jump.... [continue]

Radical Nautical, which opens this Thursday at Gallery Lombardi, introduces the question of whether more than one octopus in a room spells a troop of octupuses, or just a bunch of octopi. (You might prefer to dodge the issue altogether by referring to them as cephalopods). The show's general nautical theme sprang forth from the collective consciousness of its jurors, all big machers on the Austin art scene: Ian Schultz, Michael Schliefke, Kevin Peake,...... [continue]

New American Talent: 22, up at Arthouse at the Jones Center for another month, has received positive reviews. That's unsurprising, considering Anne Ellegood, curator of the Hirshhorn Museum & Sculpture Garden in Washington, D.C., juried the show. Picking and choosing from nearly 900 submissions, she landed on 96 works generated by 45 artists, 15 of whom are from the great state of Texas. You might recognize locals Roberto Bellini, William Hundley, Rebecca Rothfus, Joseph Phillips...... [continue]

Mel Brooks strings together one liners the way that Pete Doherty strings together lines. And that's no joke. The famed writer and director from Brooklyn presents as a classic comedic triple threat: brash, brilliant and more than a little Jew-y. (Mel, it's good to be the king!) If you're a fan, you'll want to free up your Wednesday evenings for the next month or so, because Texas Hillel, located just off the UT campus, is... [continue]

Fielding Lecht Gallery, which specializes in the contemporary art of Vietnam, closes on the the 22nd of this month. It's unfortunate for Austin, but, as gallery co-owner Pam Fielding explains, the art scene in Vietnam is currently such hot hotness that, "the inventory we have here is needed back in Hanoi." Ergo, if you had hoped to visit the show Five Changing Identities: Vietnamese Women of Today, you best run your badonkadonk over to Congress...... [continue]

The word "twitter", mostly employed by delicate English septuagenarians, has been reclaimed by local artist and cinematographer Jeanne Stern. She presents her work at The Opera House this Friday with the show Twitter Box: Spatial Illusions Of All Kinds. "A 'twitter box' is a moving microcosm," Stern explained to us. "It could be a film, performance, or diorama, or a drawing that is suggestive of motion." The boxes will accompany mechanical ballets and hanging gardens.... [continue]

These slides show the work of European artists of the 19th century who enjoyed recognition in the salons of Paris. On loan from the Dahesh Museum in New York City, they are currently showing at The Blanton. If you can't view the Flash slideshow above, an alternate version appears after the jump....... [continue]

Ladies, gentlemen: please examine Joseph, Overseer of Pharaoh's Granaries, at left. Like any good Tut's tomb + art nouveau mashup, the painting emotes a quiet, anachronistic strangeness. Currently on display at The Blanton, this piece sits alongside other treasures -- both canvases and sculpture -- on loan from the Dahesh Museum in New York City. They're featured in the Blanton's new show, A Century of Grace, which honors interpretations of the human form in 19th...... [continue]

Strawberries and chocolate. California and Schwarzenegger. Spiderman 3 and Xanax. All classic pairings that destiny and the Austin Museum of Art have been working to outstrip this week, with the presentation of two new exhibits: The Target Collection of American Photography: A Century in Pictures and 24 Summers at Barton Springs Pool: Photographs by Will van Overbeek. Both shows open this Saturday. A Century in Pictures presents nearly ninety photographs taken by men and women...... [continue]

Opening May 19th, 2007: A Century in Pictures and 24 Summers at Barton Springs Pool. If you can't view the Flash slideshow above, an alternate version appears after the jump....... [continue]

Tormented calligraphers, masters of scrimshaw, weavers of lint, please read closely: the Austin Museum of Art is now accepting submissions for New Art in Austin, a triennial showcase slated for 2008. The only eligibility requirements are: 1) that you are an artist who lives within 50 miles of the Capitol building and; 2) that you have never had a solo show in a major mainstream exhibition venue in Austin. (Plus, that you are a visionary...... [continue]

Amelia Sweethardt, a young Texas native, oversees day-to-day operations at Pure Luck Farm and Dairy, just outside of Dripping Springs. Her award-winning goat cheese, carried by Whole Foods, Central Market and Wheatsville, is not only the stuff of local legend, but also the subject of a recent article in Oprah magazine. As Oprah tells it, Amelia inherited Pure Luck Farm -- one of the first in Texas to be certified organic -- from her mom,...... [continue]