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for Fri., Nov. 20
  • Opening Reception of "Tenfold" Exhibition

    McLennon Pen Co. Gallery is proud to announce its move to a new, expanded home at 1114 W 5th St in Clarksville. The inaugural exhibition titled Tenfold will debut the art gallery's first official artist roster including artists based in Austin, New York, Los Angeles, and Kansas City.
    Thurs. June 5, 6pm-9pm  
    McLennon Pen Co. Gallery
Recommended
  • Arts

    Classical Music

    Austin Opera: Lauren + Mark Digital Concert Event

    Now, music lovers, now you can watch the opening production of Austin Opera's re-imagined 2020-2021 season – the Lauren Snouffer + Mark Diamond Digital Concert Event – as a limited-edition online release. And you know Nyle Matsuoka provides the piano for this wonderment, right?
    Through Nov. 30. Free.  
  • Arts

    Visual Arts

    Austin Studio Tour: Pandemic Edition

    We're calling it the pandemic edition, but Big Medium and associates just call it the Austin Studio Tour. It's that progressive arts organization's response to these damned 'ronas, is what it is. They're taking the annual West Austin and East Austin Studio Tours and combining them, then presenting them mostly via the internets – wherein the expanded website includes artist profiles, images of artworks, virtual studio visits, demonstrations, artist talks, and a handy map of outdoor installations and public art. Hundreds of artists in this town, in full digital force. Note: The Tour begins with a launch party on Fri., Nov. 13; it's a preview of the website (and an opportunity to acquire artwork before it opens generally on Nov. 14).
    Through Nov. 22. Free.  
  • Arts

    Visual Arts

    Bale Creek Allen Gallery: Jun Kaneko

    Ceramics master Kaneko is increasingly drawn to installations that promote civic interaction, having completed more than 60 public art commissions – including a 250-foot-long tile wall at Aquarium Station in Boston, a three-story wall at the University of Connecticut, and an 88-foot-tall Glass Tower at Omaha's Buffett Cancer Center. (Other large permanent installations can be seen in Osaka, Japan; Kansas City, MO; and at the International Finance Center in Shanghai, China.) Most recently, the artist's been working at the Cuernavaca Raku ceramics studio, experimenting with new glazes and the unpredictability of raku. And now here's a show of his fierce sculptural creations, right there at the BCA outpost in Canopy.
    Through Nov. 30
  • Arts

    Theatre

    Bernadette Nason: A Christmas Carol

    In which the acclaimed actor and author reprises her popular one-woman adaptation of Dickens' holiday classic, performing more that 30 characters in 60 minutes and bringing some real delight to this unusual holiday season we've got going on. Bonus: Livestreamed talkback after each performance of this Austin Playhouse production.
    Dec. 18-21. Fri.-Sat. & Mon., 7:30pm; Sun., 5pm. $15.  
  • Arts

    Books

    Carmen Maria Machado: The Low, Low Woods

    The acclaimed author presents (virtually, yes) her new novel, a horror story about two teens in a Pennsylvania town called Shudder-to-Think, where the woods are full of rabbits with human eyes, a deer woman who stalks hungry girls, and swaths of skinless men.
    Fri., Nov. 20, 6pm. $5.  
  • Arts

    Classical Music

    Chorus Austin: Stronger, United

    Ryan Heller presents a virtual concert of new and previously recorded pieces from Chorus Austin's Chamber Ensemble, featuring selections (a mix of spirituals, pop, folk songs, and more) by Alberto Grau, Rosephanye Powell, Carlos Cordero, and Dr. Roland Carter.
    Through Nov. 21. Free.  
  • Arts

    Theatre

    Futurx 2020: Entra al Laberinto!

    Citizens of Austin! Gather virtually in an interactive online laberinto where audiences can wander from Zoom room to Zoom room to experience Loteria fortune telling, life coaching sessions, burlesque performances, magic rituals, divine tias, DJ sessions, late night rideshares, and more from artists whose Latinidad is queer, trans, feminist, Afrolatinx, and indigenous. Featuring performances by ProyectoTEATRO, Ben Bazan, Florinda Bryant, Gricelda Silva, Teatro Quarantine, Laura de la Fuente, Marina de la Fuente, Marina DeYoe-Pedraza, Krysta Gonzales, Lily Gonzales, Siri Gurudev, Line 720, and more. Note: Robert Faires previews the festival here.
    Fri.-Sat., 8pm. Through Nov. 21. $15.  
  • Arts

    Dance

    Jennifer Sherburn: Elsewhere

    Jennifer Sherburn, the award-winning director of modern dance series 11:11, presents a voyeuristic dance experience, a self-guided tour of living installations that "transmute the concepts of stage, audience, and performance to acknowledge the barriers keeping us apart — while permitting a glimpse at what may be happening inside their confines." This featured part of the Austin Studio Tour features dancers Jairus Carr, Ciceley Fullylove, Lisa Anne Kobdish, Hailley Lauren, Taryn Lavery, Alex Miller, Clay Moore, Amy Myers, Sarah Annie Navarrete, and Marcie Bruscato Poss, in compelling kinesis all around the Rogge House Ranch. Note: Bring a mask and prepare for proper distancing.
    Through Nov. 22. Thu.-Sun., 6:30, 7:15, and 8pm. $20.  
  • Arts

    Visual Arts

    Le Dollhouse

    Here's a fine visit. Austin's Denise Prince is installing a child-sized dollhouse room for you to sit in and pretend, a space "in which to indulge the pleasure of wishes, to acknowledge their tangible power and then to leave, returning to a world in which much is asked of us that, as adults, we're prepared to stand and face." The room will be classically charming inside, but with inflatable horrors clinging to the outside – right there at Moontower Cider Company.
    Through Nov. 21. Fri.-Sat., 3-9pm. Free.  
  • Arts

    Comedy

    Moontower Comedy: Michelle Wolf

    She's gonna make you cry, Wolf, but they'll be tears of laughter as the popular comedian stops in Austin this weekend to work the crowds with all-new material. You know her from that Joke Show special on Netflix, right? Now see her live, onstage, in that venerable Paramount venue Downtown.
    Fri.-Sat., Nov. 20-21, 7 & 10pm. $25-30.  
  • Arts

    Visual Arts

    Northern-Southern: Baton

    This is a group show by relay, begun in July of 2020 as a method of socially distancing a community in the height of the pandemic: Artists took turns alone in the space, each adding to the exhibition. Now, as it nears its close, the exhibition resembles a community in which work converses and overlaps. With Adreon Henry, Vy Ngo, Dawn Okoro, Leon Alesi, Matt Steinke, Sev Coursen, Stella Alesi, and more.
    Closing reception: Sat., July 24, 3-9pm
  • Arts

    Theatre

    The Importance of Being Earnest

    Austin Shakespeare presents Oscar Wilde's classic comedy via Zoom. "From the first moments of the play to the final revelation, Wilde's characters make me smile," says director Ann Ciccolella. "Earnest is his masterpiece of comic situations, and having Fran Dorn return to Austin Shakespeare as Lady Bracknell brings a whole level of joy to our experience." Also starring Amani Dorn, Matthew Graham Wagner, Tamil Periasamy, Toby Minor, Michelle Jackson, Robert Deike, and Khali Sykes.
    Nov. 19-22. Thu.-Sun., 7:30pm. $5-10.  
  • Arts

    Theatre

    UTNT: Wyeth Airlines Flight Thirteen

    This coming-of-age story follows "a group of middle-schoolers who lose the ability to play," none of them prepared for the moment when their games stop being real, overshadowed by the new monsters of illness, grades, and crushes. Directed by Andrea L. Hart from a script by Lena Barnard for UT's New Theatre program.
    Thu.-Fri., Nov. 19-20, 7:30pm. Pay what you can.  
All Events
  • Arts

    Visual Arts

    Art for the People: Where the Bots Begin

    Lauren Briére’s art escorts the viewer on a visual journey into outer space, the fun of sports, walks in nature, and various adventures and shenanigans, as Art for the People showcases 200-plus sketches that are the artist's penciled beginnings to creating her whimsical "Robots in Rowboats."
    Through Jan. 3
  • Arts

    Visual Arts

    Atelier Dojo: Remote Studios

    The local powerhouse of figurative painting, the art school that's the smart school for artists of all kinds, they've got a painting-along-at-home series going to help you keep your skills honed in these socially restrictive times, featuring live costumed models posing on camera and a thriving community of creatives rendering that lovely human biotecture from their separate studios. "Join us for a three-hour costumed-model drawing session. Use any supplies you wish, listen to music, share your work, chat with others. It’s a great way to stay connected with your art community!"
    Tuesdays, 1:30-4:30pm; Fridays, 6:30-9:30pm; Saturdays, 9:30-12:30pm. $5.  
  • Arts

    Dance

    Ballet Austin: Nutcracker Gift Barre

    This year – this relentlessly crazy-ass year – Ballet Austin brings their Nutcracker Gift Barre online to offer a great selection of holiday gifts, including nutcrackers, ornaments, tiaras, and T-shirts – with curbside pickup, delivery, or beyond-Austin shipping available. Note: 100% of proceeds will benefit Ballet Austin.
    Through Dec. 18  
  • Arts

    Visual Arts

    Bee Cave Arts Foundation: Dark Sky Photography

    Note: This exhibition is on on display at "The Hive" in the Hill Country Galleria. See website for more.
    Through Nov. 28. Free.
    12700 Hill Country Blvd.
  • Arts

    Visual Arts

    Bullock Texas State History Museum: This Light of Ours

    This show features images by activist photographers of the Civil Rights Movement, telling a visual story of the struggle against segregation, race-based disenfranchisement, and Jim Crow laws in the 1960s. These photos capture the day-to-day struggles of everyday citizens and their resolve in the face of violence and institutionalized discrimination – with more than a dozen additional images representing activism and protest in Austin's own history.
    Tuesdays-Sundays. Through Dec. 6
  • Arts

    Visual Arts

    Camiba Art: Intersecting Stories

    Make an appointment to check out the new and classic works of local artist Adreon Henry, is what we're recommending right now. Camiba has curated up a fine exhibition of the man's heavily handworked, woven-vinyl, eroded-screenprint, polychrome creations to dazzle your mind and entice fantasies of having such things displayed on your own walls.
    Through Nov. 21
  • Arts

    Visual Arts

    ChingonX Fire: Group Exhibit

    Inspired by the Mexican American Cultural Center's annual La Mujer celebration – and by the first feminist of the New World, Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz – this online group exhibit is curated by April Garcia and features womxn-identifying and nongender-specific artists whose artwork is tied to activism, feminism, cultural. and gender identity storytelling, environmental protection, and socioeconomic parity.
  • Arts

    Comedy

    ColdTowne Theater

    ColdTowne's new brick-and-mortar place is totally open, and who knows what they'll shake this city with next? But one truth remains: ColdTowne is a designated den of gold, baby, sweet comedy gold.
  • Arts

    Visual Arts

    Davis Gallery: Evidence of the Search

    The scientists say that the out-of-doors is a good place to avoid those 'ronas that may accrue in crowded, enclosed places, and the scientists know what they're talking about. But did you know that looking at beautiful paintings of the out-of-doors can ward off the weltschmerz that attends a lousy pandemic like what we're all dealing with right now? This reporter swears it's true! Luckily, Davis Gallery is featuring new paintings by Laurel Daniel, whose recent body of work "focuses on well-known surroundings: big skies, colorful Hill Country landscapes, and bountiful florals. The collection includes both smaller plein air paintings finished on location and larger pieces completed in the studio." And you can even book a masked, safely distanced viewing visit with the artist for the show's opening.
    Through Nov. 25
  • Arts

    Visual Arts

    Dimension Gallery: Burden of Respectability

    Dimension Gallery's front window features the final installment of part one in their Rising Action series, with new works by Dawn Okoro. Incorporating elements of punk and Nigerian fashion, Okoro’s exhibition personifies the weight placed on Black individuals through the subversive nature of respectability politics – illustrated here by paintings, videos, garments, and jewelry that are informed by punk and compositional techniques used in fashion marketing.
    Through Dec. 5
  • Arts

    Visual Arts

    EighteenFifteen Gallery: Wresting Place

    This exhibition of new works by Amanda Fay and Anton Chavez "calls to attention the struggles involved in the pursuit of The American Dream. The works featured act both as protest and homage to the trials and tribulations faced by the working class and the sociopolitical circumstances that act as obstacles towards upward mobility." See website for details.
    Through Nov. 26  
    1815 Rosewood
  • Arts

    Visual Arts

    Forklift Danceworks: Portraits at Downs Field

    It's the culminating piece of Forklift's year-long residency at Downs Field in East Austin: Portraits of the Downs Field community by photographer Cindy Elizabeth, installed at the field for everyone to see. The project explores the importance of Downs Field to the continual flourishing of baseball in Texas, through the past, present, and future.
    Through Jan. 4
  • Arts

    Visual Arts

    Georgetown Art Center: Book Passage

    Yeah, sometimes we just can't help but pimp – er, we mean promote – this arty bastion that's so up north it makes us think twice as we glance at our long-suffering Isuzu. But, listen, this is a show of reclaimed books that have been altered in extraordinary ways by Janice Anderson and John Sager – via collage, via paint, via outright sculpting of the materials. Anderson is new to us, but we saw a few of Sager's bibliophilic alterations over a decade ago and we're still talking about their beauty even now. Recommended, and definitely worth the trip. (Bonus: Check out the excellent Lark & Owl bookstore while you're there, too.)
    Through Jan. 3
  • Arts

    Visual Arts

    grayDUCK Gallery: Crit Group Show

    The Contemporary Austin's 2020 Crit Group show features work by Annie Arnold, Rakhee Jain Desai, Lydia Garcia, Sean Ripple, Alexandra Robinson, Saul Jerome E. San Juan, Michael Stephen, and Cheyenne Weaver.
    Through Dec.13
  • Arts

    Visual Arts

    High Craft Art Market

    This is "an interactive, virtual art market showcasing contemporary artists and makers from the Austin community, with craftsmanship across all media, bridging the worlds of fine art and fine craft."
    Through Nov. 22. Free.  
  • Arts

    Visual Arts

    House of Mesmerize: Enter the Multiverse

    This interactive, gallery-style experience inside Austin's Native Hostel "follows the journey of Mesmer, an artist and amateur tinkerer who discovers a secret: we and our universe are not alone. Mesmer opens up a portal and is swallowed into the Multiverse and its infinite cosmic curiosities." The created environment features 15 unique art installations, with multiple paths and possibilities, and you know there'll be safety protocols to follow, too, to thwart those pesky 'ronas. ⁠Note: We'll be looking into this and getting back to you with a full report.
    Through Dec. 20. Thu.-Sun., 11am-11pm. $25.  
  • Arts

    Visual Arts

    ICOSA: Finding Necessities

    This juried group exhibition, curated by Sidney Mori, navigates the viewer through works of curiosity, resistance, healing, and imagination.
    Through Nov. 22
  • Arts

    Visual Arts

    Joe/Kamala Yard Art on Bellvue

    There, across 14 front yards on Bellvue Avenue: A sign of hope! Signs of hope, actually – the pro-Biden/Harris (or, as the artist puts it, Joe/Kamala) artworks of Austin's David Hefner. It's an excellent opportunity for a lift-up-your-spirits drive-by or walking tour: good stuff, visually, even beyond its message. Also a good excuse – go ahead, do it – to check out that Hefner's website, peruse some of the other works he's done.
    Mayyyybe through Inauguration Day?
    Bellvue Avenue, between 42nd & 45th, two blocks west of Lamar
  • Arts

    Visual Arts

    Lady Bird Lake: Skyline Virtual Outdoor Gallery

    Grab your smartphone, a bike, a kayak, or your walking shoes and join Toni Toscano for an outdoor virtual viewing of her new series, Skyline: impressionistic photographs of our city taken during this quaran-time. You can search for the shiny QR codes placed along the shore of Lady Bird Lake, scan the code and view a virtual gallery of photographs taken in each location. (And, yes, this is an outdoor part of the current Austin Studio Tour.)
    Nov. 14-22
  • Arts

    Visual Arts

    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
  • Arts

    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.
  • Arts

    Visual Arts

    Link & Pin: Destroy Something Beautiful

    Borrowing a metaphor from Fight Club (when Tyler Durden disfigures Angel Face, remember?), this show picks up where the artist’s labored perfection ends and his unbound "self-important vandalism" begins. Yeah? Listen: This is the work of Chad Rea, former advertising copywriter, whose creations are vivid and clever and nigh on unforgettable, whose succinct-as-fuck visual takes on our modern times will kick your eyes' ass in a pleasurable fashion.
    Through Dec. 13. Fri.-Sat., 1-5pm; Sun., 2-5pm
  • Arts

    Visual Arts

    Lora Reynolds Gallery: Upwelling

    Meghann Riepenhoff makes her images with an antiquated photographic printing process – no camera, no lens – and thinks of her work as a collaboration with the ocean, the landscape, and precipitation, her dynamic cyanotypes taking on varying shades of blue to give the impression of water in motion, and much of her work is large enough to feel immersive, almost overwhelming.
    Through Jan. 16
  • Arts

    Visual Arts

    Martha's Contemporary: Feral

    Payton McGowen's first solo exhibition with the gallery features nine new acrylic on canvas paintings that explore the idea of returning to nature.
    Through Dec. 20
    4115 Guadalupe
  • Arts

    Visual Arts

    Mexic-Arte Museum

    Day of the Dead In observance of the Mexican holiday Día de los Muertos, Mexic-Arte Museum presents the 37th annual Day of the Dead exhibition, paying tribute to the tradition that celebrates the return of the dead, featuring community altars and a special showing of artwork from the Juan Antonio Sandoval Jr. Collection. ELA 25: Intersection: Shock & Relief This annual show, formally known as Young Latinx Artists, celebrates the last 25 years of exhibitions, featuring the work of emerging Latinx artists as curated by Dr. George Vargas and revealing two new murals on the museum’s exterior Fifth Street wall.
    Through Nov. 22
  • Arts

    Visual Arts

    Prizer Arts & Letters: People the We

    This is a collaborative exhibition by Adrian Aguilera and Betelhem Makonnen, conceived in the wake and continuing aftermath of the Black Lives Matter uprisings that were reignited in May 2020. "Over a series of masked and socially distanced exchanges, mostly in the natural spaces outside both their studios, Aguilera and Makonnen tried to give form to the overwhelming personal and collective emotions of rage, disappointment, exhaustion, and bruised hope that they experienced in the last six months. Cultivating their continuous curiosity about the relationship between symbols and collective identity, transnationality and diaspora perspectives, as well as history's inextricable hold on the present, Aguilera and Makonnen introduce new multimedia work in conversation with existing work to reflect on this (re)current moment in our country." Recommended: Make an appointment for viewing; check out the gallery's front window for a preview.
    Through Jan. 3
  • Arts

    Visual Arts

    Recspec Gallery: Comfort Coast

    This virtual opening and showcase of new work created by Heather Sundquist Hall is heavily drawn from memories, nostalgia, and stories - giving a sense of comfort in an increasingly unfamiliar world. It's another recommended part of the Austin Studio Tour.
    Through Nov. 22
  • Arts

    Visual Arts

    Stephen L. Clark Gallery: Lance Letscher

    An exhibition of new collage works by Austin's own Lance Letscher might be just the thing we need to ground us in these tumultuous times. Or, contrarily, to lift us above the unnerving political fray. That whole thing about art "comforting the afflicted," right? Many of us are trending rather afflicted of late, and the artist's painstaking paper creations will, we insist, mitigate that visually, through graphic reinvention of previous forms, offering a reassuring sense of patterns and meaning to our eyes.
    Through Dec. 26. Tue.-Sat., 11am-4pm
  • Arts

    Visual Arts

    SUFFRAGE NOW: A 19th Amendment Centennial Exhibition

    On August 18, 1920, the Nineteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution was ratified, giving women the right to vote. On August 6, 2020, the Elisabet Ney Museum debuted this new show for which women photographers nationwide were invited to share photos that comment on the Centennial of the Ratification of the 19th Amendment. The most eloquent images were chosen and are included in this online exhibition.
    Through Jan. 31. Free.
  • Arts

    Visual Arts

    The Blanton Museum of Art: Expanding Abstraction

    In the early 20th century, Western artists began exploring abstract, nonrepresentational forms for the first time. Several decades later, abstraction's practitioners experimented with new materials and techniques: Dripping, pouring, staining, and even slinging paint became common, as did the use of non-traditional media such as acrylic and industrial paints. Artists also ditched the flat, rectangular format to create sculptural texture and dimensionality. Now, can you guess whose corporate collection is particularly strong in such paintings of the 1960s and '70s? If you guessed "The Blanton Museum of Art," then you'll especially want to get an eyeful of this major new show, subtitled "Pushing the Boundaries of Painting in the Americas," organized by the venue's own Carter E. Foster.
    Through Jan. 10  
  • Arts

    Visual Arts

    The Otto: Towards a New Beauty

    New work from Denise Prince! With so much of life seeming to have turned upside-down, the artist's latest in her Captivating, Not Captive series intervenes to turn us towards courage. Safely enjoy this Eastside exhibition of framed photographs from the sidewalk, night or day – with onsite links to video and more.
    Through Nov. 22. Free.
    1201 E. Cesar Chavez
  • Arts

    Visual Arts

    Vault Stone Shop: Saints & Intermediaries

    All praise! Here is the full exhibition of what Vault Stone Shop featured in their front window this summer: A visual conversation about the role of spiritual intermediaries in our modern society, explored via homage to St. Elmo (the patron saint of sailors and abdominal pain, btw) by seven superlative Austin artists. Yes, you can (safely) view the show in-person via appointment and witness up-close the wholly engaging creations of Elizabeth Chapin, Emma Hadzi Antich, CP Harrison, Meena Matocha, Hayley Morrison, Saul Jerome San Juan, and Meghan Shogan.
    Through Nov. 29
  • Arts

    Visual Arts

    Women & Their Work: Brianna McIntyre

    "My goal at Women & Their Work," says Brianna McIntyre, "is to experiment with textile waste as a viable, usable, buildable material." Using a previous bent lamination shelf design as a template, she'll create structured forms that show the visual continuity and material evolution of the design.
    Through Dec. 12
  • Arts

    Visual Arts

    Wyld Gallery

    This is Ray Donley's gallery of art by Native Americans, located in that company of artistic glory called Canopy and resplendent with creations from the original people of our struggling country.
    Call for appointment

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