From the Editor: In Capital Letters

Lately there’s been a lot of excitement about the great art community in San Antonio, and a polite silence on what is perceived as the cricket noises emanating from Austin. Before the tech meltdown, nobody though artists could afford to live in the capital anymore. Afterwards, nobody thought institutions could. When Nasdaq plunged, the Austin Museum of Art had to indefinitely shelve its new building plan, and funds dried up for other organizations like Texas Fine Arts Association (TFAA) and MexicArte Museum. Jokes abounded about the skeletal, unfinished Intel skyscraper and the glut of tract mansions on the market.

So on my last visit to the central Texas, I was really looking forward to visiting San Antonio and planned to scoot on through the capital as quickly as possible. What I found, however, was surprising: if anything, the visual arts seem to be doing better in Austin now that all those tech jobs have dried up. Maybe studio space is more affordable; maybe, like rosebushes, artists need pruning and adversity to flourish. Whatever. It was heartening to feel a pulse.

Much of that energy was visible at the Austin Museum of Art, which just opened 22 To Watch, a show of Austin area artists. Director/Curator Dana Friis-Hansen deserves major credit for organizing the show and scrounging around to find the local talent (a wider net that metropolitan Austin was cast, but Dripping Springs and Elgin are close enough for government work). The overall show might have been a bit tighter with, say, 17 to watch, but just seeing good art from emerging talent the Austin area is exciting. Particularly good were Roy Stanfield’s installation of horse crutches with banner and photo depicting two-legged horses, Mark Schatz’s Pastel Crash, a crashed car coated in polystyrene foam painted pink, Andy Coolquitt’s found crushed cans, carefully restored to their original shape, and Irene Roderick’s lacy drawing of a motorcycle. Friis-Hansen may not have snappy new building (yet) but he’s using the space he has to showoff the best work in Austin. Would it were his former institutional employer would do the same for emerging Houston artists (Fresh Paint II, anyone?)

Another person keeping the Austin flame alive is Rachel Koper, whose Gallery Lombardi shows some of the oddest, best work around. I love her deadpan exhibit themes: “Thriller” for a Halloween show of spooky art, a show of Indian-themed art and a show of circus collections. Sometimes I wonder where the ironic stance is at the gallery, and I must applaud Koper for not cultivating it: there’s no wink wink at Lombardi. Her recent exhibit of computer-generated art, Electricity and Me MD, was featured in Wired Magazine, and on April 18th she opens a big group show, Terra Local, featuring students from Southwest Texas State University in San Marcos.

The hulking monolith in Austin is the University of Texas, and that’s true right now in the visual arts as well. The Jack S. Blanton museum is the only collecting institution in town that has the space to show its collection (and, it seems, the means to continue growing it). Annette Carlozzi, the museum’s thoughtful curator, always puts together great shows, including time/frame (look for the review on Glasstire next week!)

Clustered around Lavaca and Guadalupe at 18th street are dBerman Gallery and Women and Their Work. David Berman handsomely took up the slack left when Lyons Matrix closed its doors a couple years ago, and continues to operate the most consistent, well-presented contemporary art gallery in town. Women and Their Work is a non-profit showing, well, women artists. Faith Gay’s current installation there is dynomite.

Last but certainly not least, Flatbed Press has done an impressive job fleshing out its exhibition spaces. This converted building on east MLK is home to two fantastic experimental spaces, Gallery 106 (contemporary Cuban art) and Gallery 64 (contemporary art). Bale Allen’s install in Gallery 106 wasn’t finished when I visited, but it looked fantastic-a humorous artwork about Hispanic life in America that didn’t involve an altar to anything. That’s a scratch on the surface of Austin. Next time you’re in the capital, peel yourself away from the Backyard one day and go check out some great art. Who would have thunk.

Rainey Knudson is the founder and editor of Glasstire.