Results tagged “artpreview”

In 2007, Jake Bryer and Joel Ganucheau began devoting their weekends to starting a gallery for local artists and local art buyers. Six months later, they quit their day jobs and Austin Art Garage became their full time gig. Tonight, the savvy entrepreneurs are celebrating the grand opening of Austin Art Garage's new exhibit space, an expansion that nearly doubles the size of the existing gallery. The first exhibit in the new space showcases over forty pieces by Catherine Hart. Her abstract illustrations are soft and organic, reminiscent of natural forms, particularly underwater scenes.

Despite the fact that it is still pretty sweltering outside, this evening offers the perfect opportunity to check out a few Austin galleries after hours. Art Palace, on East Cesar Chavez, is presenting two solo exhibitions: Use Your Illusion: Sterling Allen and Rx Garden: Jessica Halonen. The exhibitions will be on view through October 10, and the opening reception will take place tonight from 8 to 10pm. The aptly titled Use Your Illusion, features a new works by Austin-based artist and co-founder of Okay Mountain Gallery, Sterling Allen. Through video, photography, sculpture, and drawing, Allen plays out his experiences with optical illusion, visual perception, and trickery.

Times of turmoil are always expressed in the cultural output of troubled societies, and our current economic crisis is no exception. For better or worse, these uncertain times do provide inspiration for artists (many of whom have additional time to create thanks to layoffs and company cutbacks); as a result Austin's contemporary art magazine, Cantanker, has picked "Anxiety" as the conceptual theme for its most recent issue. On Saturday, Cantanker will celebrate the release of the latest issue as well as the opening of the accompanying group exhibit at Pump Project. The reception will also mark the release of the first Cantanker Artist Series T-shirt, designed by Austin designer and animator Eric Power.

Registration is now open for the City of Austin's Cultural Arts Division's workshop "Discovery and Dialogue: Public Art on its Head". The full day symposium is scheduled for September 12th and will feature keynote speaker Ned Kahn who will join the group for lunch. Participants of the "Discovery and Dialogue" workshop will learn about Austin's public art program, how to create successful proposals for public art projects, and insider tips on getting projects selected.

In a city geographically and culturally close to Mexico, Austin sees a fair amount of influence from our south of the border neighbors reflected in the art exhibits around town. Pump Project recently displayed a Lucha Libre mask collection, and the Mexic-Arte Museum is wrapping up their twenty-fifth anniversary show featuring an impressive exhibit of art, masks, and artifacts from their permanent collection. What we are shown often reflects the elite of Mexican culture - the professionally lit and theatrically staged Lucha that gets international TV coverage, or the well studied works of Diego Rivera and Arturo Garcia Bustos. The new exhibit Libres y Lokas opening this Saturday at Domy Books provides us with a glimpse of the polar opposite. The gritty documentary is the result of a collaboration between OTIS IKE and Ivete Lucas, both photographers and filmmakers who have landed in Austin to study their craft.

For many designers and artists, typeface is an obsessive indulgence; after all, we are constantly visually inundated by the twenty six forms that make up our alphabet. An exhibit honoring the art of type is opening tonight at Domy Books. Alphabet will feature dozens of artists and their innovative interpretations of our lettering system including hand drawn illustration, experimental typography, found objects, and mixed media. Work by well known type designers including Ken Barber and Ed Fella will be joined by that of rising artists such as Hjärta Smärta and Andrew Jeffery Wright (who had a solo exhibit at Domy back in March).

In these tough economic times, wouldn't we all just relish the opportunity to pretend to be wealthy? Well, luckily Pump Project Art Complex is providing one such chance with their Pretend You Are Rich Art Auction taking place on Saturday. The faux-riche event centers around the art auction where bidding starts at $3,000; winning bidders are then granted a $3,000 instant rebate. There will be a silent auction, running from 7-10pm, and a live auction hosted by Coldtowne Theater's Arthur Simone that will begin at 8pm. Both auctions will raise money for Pump Project Art Complex, a non-profit art studio and gallery space that is no doubt feeling the recession pinch.

Usher in the summer in style tonight at the Blanton for yet another B scene art party. This month's event marks the final big celebration of the museum's impressive multi-disciplinary Birth of the Cool exhibit. The show covers visual art, architecture, interior design, music, and film from Midcentury Modern masters such as Charles and Ray Eames and Miles Davis. In fact, Austin's own jazz trumpeter Jeff Lofton and his quartet will be performing a Miles Davis Tribute set to get everyone in the mood to be cool.

Our coverage of Art Week Austin continues with a rundown of today's events: Art Talk: Art Critics, Critique, and Community Panel: Join the conversation about arts writing with a panel that includes writers from the Statesman, Fluent Collaborative/Might Be Good, Austin Film Festival, and Fusebox Festival. The panel will be moderated by Robert Faries from the Chronicle. The discussion takes place at Domy Books and begins at 4pm.

Art Week Austin events will come to a peak with Saturday's Art After Dark party. The event is being held at City Hall and along the 1st Street Bridge, offering party goers spectacular views of the city at night. Art collectors and appreciators who have enjoyed the daytime events of Art City Austin will be entertained by DJ Chicken George and headliners Black Joe Lewis and the Honeybears. Food will be provided by Austin's Word of Mouth Catering along with area restaurants including the Belmont, the Salt Lick, Tacodeli, and the Cookie Lounge. Twin Liquors and Bacardi are on board as the night's wine and beverage sponsors. Tickets to the party cost $75 a piece with art collector badges and VIP options available for groups.

Our coverage of Art Week Austin continues with a rundown of today's events: 12:19 Project at AMOA: Also an ongoing project of the Fusebox Festival, this open collaboration encourages people to document a single minute in their lives. A project of local non-profit Refraction Arts, anyone is invited to create an image (a photo, video, audio file, text, map, etc.) of their experience at 12:19 on any given day. Participants may also call 524-9772 to record one minute of their life. Presented in a real life and online "library" of sorts, the resulting documentation of everyone's short history will be on display at AMOA until May 2nd.

Tomorrow night, the Austin State Hospital's Volunteer Services Council are holding a benefit art show and auction. The event will feature art by Daniel Johnston as well as work by professional artists and State Hospital patients. Johnston's work colorfully features his whimsical other-worldly character sketches, while other donations range from the simple geometric figures of Jerry Walters to Piercarlo Abate's striking portraits of asylum patients from 1915 Venice. The hospital's patient art is bold and often abstract, combining mediums and themes to create true outsider art.

On Friday, IF+D, the warehouse district interior design store, will be hosting Finery, a fashion, ceramic, and photography exhibit in collaboration with Art Seen Alliance. Inspired by the idealistic and often sexually charged film culture of the 1920’s & 30’s that helped distract and entertain away the woes of the depression, Finery aims to examine the expensive, the ostentatious, and the decorated .

On Good Friday (that's tomorrow, for all you non-observant readers), two gods among mortals in the Austin art world, Michael Schliefke and Ian Shults, are curating a holy showing of art entitled Biblical Proportions. The exhibit will be split up between two East Side studios, Blue Genie and Bearded Lady, where the focus will be on art from the Old Testament and the New Testament, respectively. The over one hundred participating artists have been asked to create a piece of art based off of a story from the Bible.

There are so many great upcoming and ongoing art events taking place this weekend, here's a rundown of the highlights: Tonight the Blanton is celebrating all things art with yet another B scene party. This month will focus on "art in motion"and will feature the Cohen New Works Festival, a biennial exhibit organized by the UT Department of Theatre and Dance.

This year marks the third Texas Biennial, and the independent survey of contemporary art from all around the state has adopted a new structure that builds upon previous events. For the 2009 event, organizers are once again planning a group exhibition but have added four more focused solo shows that were given to one artist from each of the four corners of Texas. Additionally, the Texas Biennial is collaborating with Austin's Art in Public Places to install temporary outdoor projects in a handful of spaces around town.

On Sunday, the Blanton Museum of Art debuts their latest special exhibit, Birth of the Cool. The show focuses on art, design, and culture from the West Coast from around the mid-century. This ambitious exhibit encompasses not only visual art, but also the architecture, furniture design, film, and music that have come to exemplify the mid-century modern aesthetic.

Bearded Lady Printing is celebrating their seventh year in the screenprinting business with a group art show entitled simply, Friends of Bearded Lady. The show which opens on Saturday will run through March 6th and features fourteen of the studio's favorite artists. The exhibit will feature a diverse group of artists who work in a wide range of media; a departure from the space's usual display of Bearded Lady's own printing work.

Art City Austin doesn't take place until the end of April, but the event's preview night, which also serves as a fundraiser, will be held on Saturday, February 28th. Art Night Austin is a chance to get an exclusive sneek-peek at artists who will be participating in Art City Austin, all while enjoying great local culinary treats and wine pairings. A chauffeured event shuttle will take art appreciators to eight downtown exhibit spaces where chefs from local restaurants will serve up food and wine parings.

In a world that discourages raw expression, channeling fierce emotion into art can be a remarkable act of bravery. The teenaged artists featured in the Mexic-Arte Museum’s Totally Cool Totally Art exhibit present that bravery from every angle, including painting, drawing, dance, sculpture, and photography. The juried show will feature works by students from seventh through twelfth grade who participated in the city’s Totally Cool Totally Art parks and recreation program. Tonight’s opening reception will include Thread Fair, a fashion show showcasing designs by Austin Independent School District students. The evening promises a spirited affirmation of the power that creativity endows, and is sure to be inspiring for art lovers of all ages. Refreshments and a DJ will be provided at the reception.

On Thursday, a Japanese phenomenon is coming to Austin. The event, known as a Pecha Kucha Night, is the brainchild of two Tokyo based architects and allows artists, designers, and creatives to show off their work in a unique format. Japanese for "chit-chat", a Pecha Kucha night is a controlled creative showcase in which a series of artists present PowerPoint slide-shows of twenty images each for twenty seconds a piece.

Domy Books, our favorite little bookstore/gallery with a focus on contemporary art and culture, is celebrating the opening of two new shows this Saturday. Over in Domy's gallery space, illustrator Nicole Eriko Smith will be exhibiting new work in Consent to Play. Smith's suggestive black and white drawings focus on three human-like characters and her work combines elements of both Japanese and Louisianan culture with themes of fetishism. Saturday's opening reception will also celebrate the premier of Domy's Project Space, an additional exhibit room at the back of the store. The first show in the space will be We Stopped Fighting for This? a collaborative installation by artists Lauren Cardenas, Carling Hale, and Alison Kuo.

Landscape designer, nursery, and gift store, Big Red Sun, has recently held a few art exhibits at their chic East side shop. They hosted an East Austin Studio Tour party last fall and are currently exhibiting a design show that kicks off tonight. The exhibit, Sustainable Narratives, celebrates "the pursuit of integrity and beauty in the everyday object" and features work by local designers and artists. Sustainable Narratives will include funky furniture pieces, modern architectural accessories, and contemporary photography and video art.

A flood of catalogs, coupons, fliers and credit card applications flow into mailboxes every day. Most of the junk mail winds up in the trash (or maybe the recycling bin) before the recipient even hazards a second glance. One Texas artist had repurposed the glut of mail she received over the course of a year to create Free Paper, an art exhibit with a message about forest destruction, wasteful excess and consumerism.

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