Take Five (New Stops)
Brenner expands his tips for your 2013 EAST exploration
By Wayne Alan Brenner, Fri., Nov. 15, 2013
There's something about the East Austin Studio Tour's mix of multi-artist compounds showing tenants' work and single-creator home studios decked out for public consumption that makes this event the most compelling visual-arts opportunity of the year. EAST is a complex amalgam of the spectacular and the intimate strewn across the sunrise side of I-35, and I, for one, welcome what our Big Medium overlords have arranged by way of fierce diversion. I won't handicap the lineup with my same old picks again this year – although, hell yes, it's always a good idea to see what's up with Adreon Henry and Jennifer Balkan and Katy David, and the screenprinting wizards at Bearded Lady, Industry, Rural Rooster, and Obsolete Industries. Instead, let me offer these five new recommendations for your consideration:
• Laurie Frick at Pump Project's Flex Space (1109-B Shady), especially because this doyenne of data presentation's been all hooked up with the laser technology of MakeATX for her latest projects.
• Alejandra Almuelle at Iona Hand-crafted Books (701 Tillery), whose hand-built and sgraffito'd ceramics often resemble beautiful potsherds excavated from the remains of a creepy Valhalla.
• Alonso Rey (1131 Leona), because the Peruvian painter's painstaking varnishing techniques alone are worth noting, besides the already stunning images in his works of magical realism – and maybe the artist will offer you an Inca Kola, too.
• Erik Tragus (3307 Lafayette) displays functional ceramic vessels that are so unusual in their beauty, they don't have to be functional to succeed; but they are, highly functional, and expertly finished in his wood-fired kiln.
• And, finally, the "Eclosion" exhibition from Hayley Gillespie's Art.Science.Gallery at Canopy (916 Springdale), a juried group show of artwork inspired by insects and the field of entomology, loaded with paintings, photographs, and sculpture by local professionals but including several international participants as well.
