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Cirque du Soleil’s Corteo makes its first appearance here in the state capital, presenting five thrilling shows in which illusion teases reality.

Zilker Botanical Garden is excited to present this play by Manuela Infante, directed by Khristián Méndez Aguirre and performed in Spanish and English. Equal parts ode to plant beauty, meditation of grief, virtuosic performances, plant philosophy, and Austin-grown weirdness, Estado Vegetal/Vegetative State tells the story of a neighborhood rocked by a disaster.

The Filigree Theatre presents Rinne Groff's new play that's set in Coney Island in the aftermath of Superstorm Sandy and follows a young woman as she crosses paths with an illusive and charismatic Dutch filmmaker who's obsessed with telling the story of the 1911 fire that burned Coney Island’s "Dreamland" to the ground. With Kathleen Fletcher, Brough Hansen, and Allen Porterie, directed by Elizabeth V. Newman.

This "wild woman dum dum show" by CB Goodman reimagines the Genesis story from a new perspective in order to free the beginning from shame, rejection, and labels. Inflatable friends. Ballet. Apocalyptic disco. In the Beginning uses comedy, satire, nontraditional storytelling , dance, puppets, and a pool party aesthetic to joyfully queer a repressive narrative.

La Follia director Keith Womer performs Bach’s Brandenburg Concerto no. 5 (with Stephen Redfield, violin, and Marcus McGuff, flute), Haydn’s Concerto for Harpsichord and Violin (with Stephen Redfield), and Kreb's Concerto for Harpsichord and Oboe (with Sarah Davol). You want beautiful compositions? Here. You want excellent performers? Here. You want … this much harpsichord? Nowhere else but here.

The wheel of the year inspires occult-based burlesque ensemble Malum Malus as they celebrate Imbolc. Witness a full-length show – curated by Balise Ricin and featuring performances by Ricin, Anastasia Arsenic, Fig, Sigh, Mandy, Shi Feticcio, and Sevyn – for three nights only.

Colleen Ballinger is a multi-hyphenate: actor, comedian, trained vocalist, and writer, best known for portraying her character, Miranda Sings.

This show features a secret lineup of comedians – comedians who've been featured on Netflix, HBO, Comedy Central, and Showtime. Pretty cool, right?

This is an exhibition by Lera Niemackl & Kessler, featuring original bio-media and science-fiction narratives, displaying a curated array of relics from a speculative civilization. This is work that "speculates the primitive technologies that emerge from interactions between human intelligence and novel biologies." This is highly recommended.

Experience the energy and beauty of featured wall artist Anne Shackelford’s geode resin art in this visual adventure of work by 38 Austin artists.

Here's a show of deeply personal multimedia work in which artist Scott Leopold has utilized paint, objects, and text to create "layered, thick canvases of vulnerability."

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!"

Ground Floor Theatre is holding auditions for this Martyna Majok play – the story of two teenagers who were brought to America and must navigate the pressures of having an unstable home life – to be directed by Andrea Nuñez for performances in May, with rehearsals beginning in April. Ground Floor is seeking actors from backgrounds that are not of Western European origin/ethnicity, or from a country of greater liberalism than the United States, for roles of female-identified (age 17-21), male-identified (age 17-21), and one older dude. See website for appointment and details.

Here's a collection of graphically powerful work by Marfa's Christina Moser that explores the in-between, a meditation on transition as a constant, exploring the shifting nature of the self and our various thresholds. "A multisensory experience designed to move us internally and physically through space, emotions, and environments," Big Medium tells us – and we concur.

Be dazzled by recent work from artists Daniel Rodríguez Collazo and Edgardo Kerlegand in this exhibition that showcases both artists’ forms of expression as they relate to the human existence — one on the internal and physical forms of the human figure, the other on the forms that humans create and exist in. Bonus: The opening reception features videos of the artists discussing their practice and process.

That's right: Cap City Comedy Club, the longtime cornerstone of Austin's comedy scene for nearly four decades is at a new venue in the Domain. And here's Valerie Lopez with a closer look at what's in store for the scene via the venue. Click for details!

Here's an exhibition of new work by Virginia Colwell, curated by Leslie Moody Castro, investigating the ambiguity of truth and fiction in history and archives, using the romanization of the South to examine the deliberate obfuscation of the deep history of enslavement and racism.

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.

New work by B. Shawn Cox is always a delight for the eyes (and a few other senses), and here the masterful painter and arch wit brings a bounty of pop philosophy with a tinge of irony (and much big hair) – inspired by lore, social identity narratives, and childhood memories of his West Texas roots. This show includes the artist's most recent explorations, including oil on fabric, paper cuts, folded paper, and digitally created lenticular collages.

Founded by comedians Raza Jafri and Andre Ricks, this club that operates out of Tiger Den on the Eastside is the city's only BIPOC-owned comedy venue.

Printmaker Annie May Johnston often uses new technologies alongside traditional practices. Here, in collaboration with Elisabet Ney's sculpture of Lady Macbeth, Johnston is considering gendered traits, the supernatural, and pseudoscience, reflecting agency (or the lack thereof) in the processes that generate the works in this show.

Esther's Follies – Austin's not-so-secret weapon in the fight against ennui – the comedy gem that still dazzles this growing urban hub – returns to the weekly live and in-person stage of their club on Dirty Sixth, the whole troupe bringing back old favorites and debuting a new program of hilarity with topical, ripped-from-the-headlines sketches and musical numbers. And you do need a laugh or two, right about this time, don't you, citizen? (And how about a margarita to go with that?) We'd add that the mind-boggling illusions of magician Ray Anderson are a bonus in the night's clever spectacle … but, the way that arch maestro conjures mystery and delight, "bonus" would be an insult.

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.

Carver Museum ATX presents an exhibit examining the paradox of American exceptionalism and the call for reparations, with film, sculpture, and two-dimensional work from 11 artists who were asked to consider what is required for America to atone for the continued denial of full citizenship to Black people, and what repair would feel like in the body.

In this new solo show, the innovative prints of Kim Kei – the Los Angeles-based artist whose practice spans sculpture, printmaking, painting, and photography – draw on interrelated biological and geological forms that are embedded in every scale of existence.

Austin's longest-running and most beloved performance festival returns after a two-year pandemic hiatus, presenting the work – maybe cheesy, maybe brilliant, maybe goofy, maybe badass, always unique – of actors, artists, poets, dancers, and performers of all types from Austin and Texas and beyond. This final week is reserved for Best of the Fest, the very cream of the theatrical crop. NOTE: See Brenner's FronteraFest feature right here (and of course the Fest's website) for more information.

This show, says the multidisciplinary artist Renee Lai, "exhibits traces left behind by my body — silhouettes, records of movements made while swimming, a doubling of myself in a painting. These drawings and paintings render my body legible: the exact contours of my frame have been traced onto the material. In the video work, my physical body is more fully present as I swim back and forth, dragging and sinking paintings of my own body."

Explore the beauty and complexity of moviemaking through sketches, storyboards, and designs that illuminate the creation of motion pictures from the silent era to the present day in this new exhibition, featuring production art from iconic movies like Rebel Without a Cause, Raging Bull, Apollo 13, and Lawrence of Arabia, many connected with innovative directors Alfred Hitchcock, David Lean, Mike Nichols, Michael Powell, Nicholas Ray, Martin Scorsese, Stephen Spielberg, King Vidor, and more.

In which Annie Bissett, Curlee Raven Holton, and Roger Shimomura address romance from the perspective of those who have been historically excluded from Hollywood-style happy endings, each artist invokes traditional printmaking techniques to upend cliches of courtship.

Illuminating 16 acres in the Texas Arboretum at the Wildflower Center, Field of Light is Bruce Munro's stunning display of 28,000 subtly lit, solar-powered spheres that showcase the intersection of art, technology, and nature.

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.

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.

Austin's most absurd and fun attraction will have its last day on September 24th, so visit while you still can! It's the Eureka Room, a participatory experience where visitors engage with curious and playful programming within a unique 100-square-foot room filled with light and sound.

This new show, in collaboration with PrintAustin, features prints by Myles Calvert, Julia Curran, Mehdi Darvishi, Enrique Figuerdo, and Timothy Pauszek – as presented by curator Annalise Gratovich and juror Holly Borham.

Here's an exhibition of new photographic prints by Mariah Robertson, the artist's second presentation at LRG.

Here's a two-person exhibition that features painting, installation, videography, and sculpture by Moll Brau and Wes Thompson. It's a deep dive into a pool of loneliness, triumph, and rebirth. It's a forest of mazes where fireflies provide the light. It's a show of creations from a pair of terrific, hardworking local artists and you don't want to miss it.

New works by Kelly Breez, Simone Thornton, and Sarah Murphy.

This exhibition features more than 40 works of glass and oil on canvas that explore artist Reji Thomas’ understanding of the way signs and symbols constantly surround us in both the natural and built environments.

This new exhibition "delves passage to counterplaces and underworlds. In painting, photography, sculpture, taxidermy, and games the artists seek to rebalance the spirit and the flesh, to synthesize myth and experience." Yes, it's an art show about hell holes, featuring works by Alyssa Taylor Wendt, Charles Degeyter, Christos Pathiakis, Emma Hadzi Antich, Jamie Zuverza.

Starting out in February to highlight African-American art during Black History Month, closing in mid-March, this new exhibition features the art of Robert R. Jones and explores, yes, the notion of walking in someone else's shoes.

The PrintAustin Collective was co-founded in 2013 by local printmakers Cathy Savage and Elvia Perrin to bring attention to the vibrant printmaking scene in Austin. The festival they started has since grown to include more than 60 print-focused events all across the city, with returning and new participants each year. See the website for the full schedule of events and galleries.

What's going on in the world of printmaking, like, in general? This year's survey of traditional printmaking techniques and innovative approaches in contemporary work was selected by the University of Michigan's Rashaun Rucker. Bonus: You'll get a good look at the galleries of ACC Highland, too.

New work from Austin-based Amy Scofield, best known as a photographer and a sculptor working with leftover and found materials. In this show, she's taken images of discarded manufactured goods and evidence of consumerism and arranged each into a kaleidoscopic grid.

RichesArt Gallery has partnered with Fansub for their annual show spotlighting Texas artists and their interpretation of Black people’s contributions to American history.

Sisters Lisa and Janelle Iglesias present related textiles, collages, and sculpture that explore caregiving as part of a complex network of social issues, melding melds cultural references to the Dominican Republic and Norway (their parents’: home countries) with personal experiences – most recently their navigations of fertility, pregnancy, loss, and birth.

Explore the works of eight female artists – Danielle Brathwaite-Shirley, Adriana Corral, Ellie Ga, Juliana Huxtable, Tala Madani, Danielle Mckinney, Wendy Red Star, and Clare Rojas – in this new exhibition that explores how narrative and storytelling shape our senses of self, community, history, and identity.

This interactive art exhibition examines questions of authority and the sovereignty of the human journey; it features works by Moyo Oyelola, an interdisciplinary artist known for his photography and large multimedia installations.

Yes, the SARF is welcoming visitors every Saturday – to say hello, apply to adopt special stuffies who need homes, and be dazzled by "the creative endeavors of the most talented stuffed minds ever assembled."

This exhibition includes numerous artworks: from the collaborations of siblings Marjory and Daniel Johnston, and pieces from Marjory's collection of Daniel's early work that show the evolution in character development and unique images.

Will Klemm's glorious new exhibition of works is organized into two contrasting sections: the monochromatic and the brightly colorful. The painter's careful creations are either filled with allusions and quotations from 19th-century painters, or are subjects taken from his daily life.

In her large-scale installation, Jade Walker uses color, weaving, rope, tools, notions of signage, and found objects to articulate questions around how we engage with our environment and the effect that the relationship has on our society. This solo exhibition includes architectural interventions along with embellishments of familiar tools and natural elements.

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.

Were you accustomed to the graphic immediacy of the man's many collages? This collection of new oil paintings by Austin artist/musician Bob Schneider offers "vague, dreamlike tableaux that are strange and surreal."

Performed simultaneously in English and American Sign Language, this new production of Cinderella showcases favorite tunes including “In My Own Little Corner,” “Impossible,” and “Ten Minutes Ago,” in "a funny and modern adaptation from the Broadway revival."