It may not be obvious to everyone, but our City of the Violet Crown has almost as many art galleries as music venues. In Hanging Around Austin, we showcase the weirdest, most powerful and most interesting shows currently hanging around town — whether they’re up in formal galleries or in less conventional spaces.
Broken Brushes: German Expressionist Prints by Hitler’s Degenerate Artists
Flatbed Press and Gallery— 2832 East Martin Luther King Blvd.
Through April 5
About one century ago, German expressionists brought their wild, dark and moody ideas to all sorts of media — most visibly architecture, film and painting (The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, The Scream). Flatbed presents you with the opportunity to soak up some of that wild moodiness in person (along with the accompanying thrill of knowing that almost every piece was hated by Hitler). Featured artists include George Grosz, Paul Klee, Käthe Kollwitz, Edvard Munch, Otto Dix, Max Beckman and Wassily Kandinsky.
Gabe Leonard One Man Show
Art on 5th—3005 South Lamar Blvd.
Through March 15
The boozy, angular Hollywood expressionism of Gabe Leonard has caught the attention of collectors all over the world — including Quentin Tarantino, to whom Leonard’s aesthetic has been compared — for its combination of classical techniques with fist-fighting visual jazz. His stuff is rugged and active, driven forward with its chin tilted upward, at once challenging and familiar, both approachable and menacing. Add that to the fact that the new Art on 5th location sits between Kerbey Lane and Torchy’s and we’ve just planned your next date.
Living in the Layers
Davis Gallery—837 West 12th Street
Through April 5
This collaboration between Dutch photographer Micky Hoogendijk and local photographer and digital découpagiste Peggy Weiss uses classical portraiture and photo manipulation to create dreamscapes that examine human vulnerability. Come for a roomful of bold imagery underscored with waves of gentle unease, stay for the experience of walking among cool art made by the lady who used to own Jeffrey’s.
Lux, Lumens and Candelas
Women and Their Work —1710 Lavaca Street
Through March 20
Cyberpunk sculptor Adela Andea works mainly in the medium of translucent polymer and light-emitting diode, of which her current show at Women and Their Work is a prime example. Her conglomerations of tubes, computer parts, mirrors, motors and cold cathode fluorescence evoke the vibes of a neon post-apocalypse where luminescent biomachines command your attention from all angles. Her colors, textures and patterns will stay with you for days.
Gabe Leonard will be featured at Art on 5th.
