You wanted more recommendations for your Austin Studio Tour convenience on this second weekend (Nov. 12-13), citizen? Well – in addition to our main feature and relevant Arts Listings – that’s exactly what we’re providing.
Jennifer Balkan
There are some artists who are brilliant portraitists, who relentlessly push their figurative explorations to the limit. There are some artists who wreak pattern and composition like William Morris on acid. Jennifer Balkan – New Jersey-born but longtime Austinite – is often both of those artists simultaneously, and this weekend her studio is open for your persual. 3109 Lafayette.
Brooke Burnside
This architectural designer was born and raised in the Bahamas and explores geography, position, memory, and the transgressive potential in abstract documentation. She’s got six prints on banners hanging at the entrance of the Mexican American Cultural Center, a compelling welcome to the site where the Austin Studio Tour’s annual group show is on display. 600 River.
Larry Akers
This Texas native moved to Austin back in 1973, and you really need to see what the sculptor’s been up to with his stunning moire screens and other manifestations. You might want to ask your own brain, “How can something with no moving parts evoke such motion?” Anybody else in town doing this sort of work? Not on the level that Akers is.
2311 Ridgeview.
Monte Rhodes
“About 10 years ago I started making simple wire wrap jewelry, then began learning silver solder and silversmithing about nine years ago,” says this local craftsman. You’d think, looking at the beauty and precision of his work, that he’d been at it for at least half a century. This is the sort of thing one can learn, as Rhodes says he did, at Austin Community College? Sign us up. 504 Brentwood.
Laura Del Villaggio
First you have to know where your head’s at, and then you can put a hat on it. This artisanal hatmaker earned a certificate in millinery from the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York in 1999 and her millinery business, Milli Starr, was established in Austin in 2004. Wanna see what the talented artist’s been making lately? Here’s your chance. 1004 W. 31st.
Austin Studio Tour 2022, Nov. 12-13 & 19-20. Details and map at austinstudiotour.org.
This article appears in November 11 • 2022.