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Visual Arts Center: Small Refusals
This is a three-woman exhibition featuring work by students from UT's 2021 Studio Art MFA graduating class: Magdalena Jarkowiec, Heather Canterbury, and Ania Mininkova. Uncanny experiences in Home Depot aisles, found diaries, and mythologies of the American landscape are revisited in sculpture, photography, and video works for a show that celebrates the everyday as a sea of unexamined alternatives to dominant narratives. Recommended: There's an Artist Talk via Zoom on Fri., May 7, 5pm.Through May 23. Wed.-Sat., noon-5pm -
Arts
Theatre
10 Ways to Survive Life In Quarantine
Texas School for the Deaf’s performing arts program presents this new play by Don Zolidis, a virtual presentation (streamed on-demand) full of handy solutions learned and life lessons shared when the recent lockdown left us to entertain (and sometimes fend for) ourselves. Directed by Brian Cheslick, voiced and captioned for all audiences.Through May 22. $5. -
Arts
Visual Arts
Blue Genie Art Bazaar: New May Market
The creators of the Blue Genie Art Bazaar present a new spring arts event called May Market, a free, family-friendly experience showcasing the work of regional artisans and craftspeople under one roof with centralized checkout. "This is the ideal place to shop for locally made, one-of-a-kind gifts for Father’s Day, graduations, anniversaries, weddings, and more." That's what the press release says, anyway, trying to entice us in; thing is, that's even a bit too humble: We know what sort of market the Blue Genie gathers, and it's sure to be a lively splendorama of well-made goods coveted by anyone with a taste for the original, off-beat, and brilliantly homegrown.Through May 31. Fri.-Sun., 10am-8pm -
Arts
Comedy
Bonnie McFarlane
Bonnie McFarlane’s radio and television credits include an HBO special, two Comedy Central specials, as well as multiple appearances on the Tonight Show and the Late Show.May 20-22. Thu., 8pm; Fri.-Sat., 7 & 9pm. $20. -
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 Mysterious Affair at Styles
Austin Playhouse's own Lara Toner Haddock has gone and adapted Agatha Christie's first published novel? Yes – and this debut opus features none other than the sharply mustachio'd Hercule Poirot. Featuring a sockdolager cast – Ben Wolfe (as Poirot himself), Scott Shipman, Toby Minor, Lara Toner, Sarah Chong Harmer, Sarah Fleming Walker, Ben Bazaěn, Robert Deike, Joseph Garlock, Babs George, Claire Grasso, Huck Huckaby, Marc Pouhé, Ken Webster, and Cyndi Williams – directed by that same Haddock, this murder mystery may be just what you need to transition out of the pandemic and into a semblance of former normalcy. Note: "Employing a hybrid method of theatrical filming, actors will be captured using both cinematic and traditional live performance approaches. To enhance the experience, early purchasers will electronically receive exclusive clues designed for the virtual whodunnit." Available for online viewing with live Q&As after each performance, and – regardez-vous! – here's a video trailer for the show.Through June 5. Thu.-Sun., 7:30pm. $15-18. -
Arts
Visual Arts
West Chelsea Contemporary: Icons & Vandals
It's the swanky venue's "most monumental" show yet, featuring works by Jean-Michel Basquiat, Ai WeiWei, Roy Lichtenstein, and a slew of other creative provocateurs who have subverted the contemporary art world throughout the 20th and 21st centuries. Bonus: The closing reception features an artist talk with "The First lady of Graffiti," Lady Pink.Closing reception: Sun., July 11, 3-5pm
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Arts
Theatre
A Portrait of My Mother
An artist remembers their mother, spinning a modern Mexican Cinderella tale as we follow the trials and tribulations of one woman's journey into motherhood – from her humble beginnings in the town of Laredo, Texas, to her journey to Chicago, and everything between. Written and performed by Carlo Lorenzo Garcia, directed by David R. Jarrott. Note: Now available for viewing on Vimeo.Through July 31. $5. -
Arts
Visual Arts
Art for the People Gallery: Such Miracles Among Us
Kate Fitzpatrick's work enlivens this gallery's first solo show of 2021, the artist's painted depictions of wildlife a colorful delight for the eyes.Through June 6 -
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
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.Free. -
Arts
Visual Arts
Cloud Tree Studios: Connection – Series I
Okay, you want a deeply wonderful, life-enriching experience in this town right now? Go here. See this show. See this exhibition of Prentiss Douthit's oil-on-linen portraits of random strangers, portraits that are paired with the pictured ones' answers to questions posed by the artist. Note: Bring your earbuds, so you can hear the recordings of those questions and answers while you drink in the well-rendered draughts of humanity Douthit has so carefully provided.Through May 30 -
Arts
Visual Arts
Co-Lab Projects: A Wished For and Welcome Guest
This is Co-Lab's first exhibition in and around the newly realized culvert gallery at their Glissman property. "As a nod to our history," says the gallery's Sean Gaulager, "and in the sentiment of gathering our community once more, this reopening exhibition includes 21 artists who have shown with us in the past." Note: Arts Editor Robert Faires reviewed the show right here.Closing reception: Sat., May 29, 6-10pm5419 Glissman -
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
Classical Music
Conspirare: (un)Hidden Music
Here's a curated program of heart-opening music, featuring a solo performance by Conspirare’s own Craig Hella Johnson, giving you the lowdown on the acclaimed company's musical mission.Streaming through July 15. Donations accepted. -
Arts
Visual Arts
Davis Gallery: Nuevo Mundo
Now here's a show that's well worth seeing: The new exhibition from Gladys Poorte, displaying paintings and drawings of a new world populated with unknown peoples, animals, and plants. A world rife with untold treasures and dangers. A place, as wrought so colorfully by Poorte, that it might've been the homeworld for that legendary Codex Seraphinianus.Through June 12 -
Arts
Comedy
Fallout Comedy
This hotbed of local performance is carrying on even more than usual, with an eclectic mix of live, mind-rocking comedy from some of Austin's best, all week long. Hey! The place is our cover story, as reported by Valerie Lopez! And, srsly, who would ever disagree with the sentiment of Monday night's Fuck This Week show? Check the website for details. -
Arts
Visual Arts
Goodluckhavefun: Feedback Loop
This show of trippy, phantasmagorical paintings, of reactive abstract compositions, by Matthew Langland – elegantly displayed in the west Austin residential gallery of Tim McCool and Kira Prentice – closes with a reception this weekend.Closing reception: Sat., May 29, 7-9pm1207-B Enfield -
Arts
Visual Arts
grayDUCK Gallery: It’s Only BarrioPOP But I Like It
Cande Aguilar (b. 1972, Brownsville, Texas) is a self-taught artist who reflects on border culture through his distinctive style, an amalgamation sprung by characters, colors, and street phenomena.Through May 23. Check it out on Saturdays, noon-6pm, or by appointment -
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 Gallery: Linear Variations
Laura Sturtz explores both geometric and organic forms in her artwork, primarily via metals and wood, creating sculptures from fragments of material that she's made, altered, or found.Closing reception: Fri., May 28, 5:30-7:30pm -
Arts
Visual Arts
Lora Reynolds Gallery: Twenty-Eight Skies
Witness these large new works on paper by Jason Middlebrook, in the artist's fifth show at the gallery. "Much of this work can be imagined as bearing witness to a mortal struggle between man and nature," say the gallery notes, "a struggle between frenetic geometric patterns and the humble flora we too often overlook and take for granted."Through June 19 -
Arts
Visual Arts
Lydia Street Gallery: Un/Common Thread
Amy Scofield uses humanity's material discards to create intuitively inspired works of magic. "My work addresses conservation, consumerism, notions of value and attachment, through sculpture and installations made from already existing materials," says the artist. "I've used thousands of discarded bike tubes, zillions of salvaged Mylar strips from mailing envelopes, dozens of yards of recycled city water pipe, hundreds of dead trees, shards of dried mud or twisty vines to create works that ask the viewer to reconsider what is meaningful." See for yourself, now, at Scofield's latest exhibition in the Lydia Street Gallery.Through June 25 -
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: A Cartography of Solitude
Stephen Pruitt, a mensch in so many creative industries – whether behind the scenes, designing the lights and sets of the better theatrical experiences in this town, or on the stage itself, performing explications of science as if he were some fearless combo of Laurie Anderson and Andy Kaufman – this Pruitt's revealing a show of stark and atmospheric photography at the Prizer gallery on East Cesar Chavez. Listen: "For years, I’ve taken long adventures with just my camera and journal for company, and in those travels, I’ve experienced some stunning places that seem to revel in their remoteness, in their quiet, in their inhospitality, unless you’re willing to accept their terms – no easy meals, no water, no roads – and stay only as long as you can be self-sufficient. This installation is both an exploration of those places – places that emphasize how small and ephemeral we are, how big the world is – and the many different ways that we experience solitude internally.” Suggestion: Avail yourself of this opportunity, citizen. Bonus: The photographs will be illuminated every night (8-11pm) and can be seen from viewing platforms outside the gallery.Through June 19 -
Arts
Visual Arts
Recspec Gallery: Quarantine Drawings
New drawings created during pandemic quarantine by that maestro of color and balance, Adrian Landon Brooks.Through May 31 -
Arts
Visual Arts
SAGE Studio: Spring Work
Here's a two-person exhibition featuring the work of Dallas-based abstract painter Charlie French alongside the vibrant pastel drawings of Austin's own Emily Dodson. The work is "a visual representation of the season as well as the collective rebirth many are feeling as the weather warms and things begin to lighten."Through May 31 -
Arts
Visual Arts
The Blanton: From the Collection of Jack Shear
In 1999, the photographer and art collector Jack Shear co-organized an exhibition at New York’s Drawing Center: "Drawn from Artist’s Collections." This new show at the Blanton is curated by Shear "in an exploratory, free-flowing manner in which the forms, compositions and colors on the sheets respond to one another in a playful, non-traditional hang."Through Aug. 22 -
Arts
Visual Arts
The Contemporary Austin: "I'm" and "Bible Eye"
Austin-born and internationally acclaimed, Deborah Roberts critiques notions of beauty, the body, race, and identity in contemporary society through the lens of Black children. (Her first solo museum presentation in Texas, "I'm," is part of The Contemporary Austin's participation in the Feminist Art Coalition – a nationwide initiative of art institutions to generate awareness of feminist thought, experience, and action through exhibitions and events.) Norway's Torbjørn Rødland works with analog technology and readymade spaces to create photographs that render the everyday uncanny. His images blend the cool, seductive aestheticism of commercial and fashion photography with the layered complexity of a conceptual practice, resulting in ambivalent perspectives that both attract and repulse.Through Aug. 15 -
Arts
Visual Arts
Wally Workman Gallery: Spring and All
"Patrick Puckett's paintings are known for their bold colors and strong leisurely figures, executed with confident interaction between paint application, shape, color and texture." Like, the feeling you get when you've had your second vaccine, and you've suffered through that One Day of Bleh, and now, even though there's still a pandemic going on, you feel so much safer and ready to take on the world again, just as things are starting to reopen and spring is launching into its brightest phase of green beauty before summer comes a-blazing down our paths again? That feeling? This show – Puckett's work in general – captures that feeling. Welcome yourself back to Austin, we suggest, at the Workman Gallery sometime this month.Through May 29 -
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