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for Thu., Dec. 31
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  • Arts

    Dance

    Ballet Austin: The Nutcracker

    Local luminaries enliven the stage with holiday splendor and wintery exuberance in this Nutcracker digital film, featuring Ballet Austin’s 2019 stage production by Stephen Mills, now streaming on-demand and including a plethora of bonus material, cast and crew interviews, and behind-the-scenes featurettes. Note: You can get access with a tax-deductible donation to Ballet Austin and view the kinetic wonderment until the new year dawns.
    Through Jan. 1  
  • Arts

    Classical Music

    Beerthoven Goggles

    Wait, what? Yes, Daniel Swayze and his Beerthoven cabal are plunging into the world of virtual reality! That is, they've made 360-degree films of more than an hour of music from two Beerthoven programs – Sacred and Profane, featuring a brass quintet performance, and those goldenthroated Tinsel Singers sharing favorite songs for the holidays, and both shows captured on the steps of the historic Neill-Cochran House – and now they're presenting this seasonal extravaganza to you with a VR headset (Pico G2 4K) delivered direct to your home for complete immersion. Bonus: Scenes from the Austin Trail of Lights. See website for details.
    Through Jan. 10. $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

    Visual Arts

    Ruido/Noise: Alquimia Rítmica/Rhythmic Alchemy

    Yes, it is sound art, not visual art, but it does seem to fit better here than among the Classical Music listings, n'est-ce pas? But never mind the pigeonholes, citizen: This is the gallery's final online exhibition of 2020, curated by local artist Vladimir Mejia, who invites you to "take a joyride with a mixtape of sound art" online.
    Thu., Dec. 31  
All Events
  • Arts

    Visual Arts

    AO5 Gallery: Disruption

    Hey, you! Globally aware art connoisseur! Don't miss this show of bold visuals from some of the most famous European street artists – like Banksy, Striker, Zero, and Cee Pil – now sharing wall space with works by Austin's own Jason Eatherly, Dave Lowell, and that Impossible Winterbourne.
    Through Dec. 31
  • 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

    Theatre

    Austin Acts! Virtual Stage Talent Competition

    The eight actors here, competing since last July, are vying for the grand prize in this online event from Austin's City Theatre, which features the performances that got them to the finals via embodiment of works by Tom Stoppard, Edward Albee, Paula Vogel, Neil Simon, Terrence McNally, Tennessee Williams, Anna Deveare Smith, and more.
    Through Jan. 10. Donations accepted.  
  • 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

    Visual Arts

    Davis Gallery: Together Apart

    This is an extensive group exhibit focused on the experience of sharing holidays apart from loved ones, with artists addressing the importance of family, life and death, our connection to nature, and spirituality. Each of the artists has created new work (or chosen work from the past) that uniquely recognizes these concepts. And this is the Davis Gallery, so those artists include Chun Hui Pak, David Everett, Faustinus Deraet, David Leonard, Dana Younger, Fallon Bartos, and others, and we're giving it our highest recommendation.
    Through Jan. 16
  • Arts

    Visual Arts

    Dimension Gallery: Polarity

    This latest installation by Colin McIntyre balances subtle extremes of light and sound, featuring a constructed setting that's a rhomboid chamber of red on red. Into this incarnadine vault the sculptor has engineered neon light and sound that plays through cymatic devices to oscillate fluids at the frequency of a specific tone. Note: This is an in-person event inside the gallery, for one to two people at a time, with a strict face mask and social distancing policy.
    Through Feb. 28
  • Arts

    Visual Arts

    Flatbed Press: 2020 Hindsight

    Here's a fine way to sum a year in the printerly life: Flatbed presents a new exhibition of works from each of the 14 artists who worked at the press this year – along with the “Every Head Is a World, Every World Is a Head” portfolio of prints by Michael Ray Charles that was published shortly before Flatbed relocated in 2019. Featuring art by Melissa Miller, Adrian Armstrong, Suzi Davidoff, Lance Letscher, David Everett, Darden Smith, and more.
    Through Jan. 9. Wed.-Fri., 10am-5pm, and by appointment
  • 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

    Ivester Contemporary: Absolute Relativism

    This is a solo exhibition by Austin-based artist Dave McClinton, representing a continuation of his Black Life series, an ongoing project that aims to illustrate the inner life-cycle of Black people in America. "McClinton’s single edition digital collages focus on the bodies and portraits of Black people embellished with textures of foundational elements, symbols related to trade and status, as well as text from historical documents derived directly from America’s long and lingering history of slavery and white supremacism." Also, this work? Bold, illuminating, confrontational, and aesthetically superlative. Bonus: Ivester's Project Space presents "Olas de Perturbación," new works by Michael Anthony Garcia.
    Through Jan. 9
  • 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

    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

    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

    Mexic-Arte Museum: Mexico, the Border, and Beyond

    Mexic-Arte Museum presents an exhibition of selections from the Juan Antonio Sandoval Jr. collection, an array of work that is considered one of the most important Latinx art collections in the United States.
    Through May 30
  • 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

    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

    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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