Hanging Around Austin

Hanging Around Austin: 4 March art shows that roar in like a lion

March has been one beast of a month so far, but by all accounts it should be better soon. With both spring and SXSW coming, preliminary reports suggest that it may actually be pleasant outside as you bop between free official events and witness dozens of pretty good bands whose names you wish you could remember.

While there is plenty of art at SXSW this year, including Norman Collins (Sailor Jerry), SprATX, Hello Lamp Post, take the occasional break from the craziness and re-center yourself in a nice, quiet, art-filled place.

Sara Frantz: Between Borderlands
Women & Their Work, through March 18

The work of hypermodern landscapist Sara Frantz casts a sharp shadow on the myriad methods by which orderly human structures interfere with the cozy chaos of roadside scenes from West Texas to Iceland. The architectural shapes in her work stand up like high-noon shadows in Technicolor. Sticking out distinctly from the gray stalks and puffs of surrounding vegetation, these shapes are made to look as ephemeral as all human structures are.

Gabe Leonard: Desperados
Art on 5th, through April 4

Self-styled cinematic artist Gabe Leonard is back for another solo rodeo at Art on 5th, this time bringing roomfuls of artist’s proofs and new original oils that combine to forge a rumpus-room outline of the hard-edged, long-limbed, world-wandering spirit that dwells somewhere inside of all of us. Art enthusiasts can stop by on Saturday, March 7, to mix, mingle and meet the artist from 7-9 pm.

Milt Kobayashi + Gregg Kreutz
Gallery Shoal Creek, through April 4

The simultaneous exhibition of two New York-based painters currently up at Shoal Creek offers a look at two distinct and powerful methodologies in expert oilwork. Kobayashi brings a firm hand of visual fiction to his plummy, curvaceous interpretations of human moments, while Kreutz’s work serves up the warm awe of tightly representational forms with just a glimmer of impressionist backlighting.

JJ PEET: BRAIN to HAND to OBJECT_
Gatehouse Gallery at Laguna Gloria, through April 19

We gave this one a brief mention in our piece on the Tom Sachs boombox party at The Contemporary Austin this season, but Peet’s work is so raw and so odd that it bears further mention. This exhibition — his first anywhere in Texas — presents assemblages of found and made objects that challenge established structures of all types. It’s surreal, anarchic stuff; opaque, incisive, culturally critical and unflinchingly self-assured.

New York-based artist Milt Kobayashi is on display at Shoal Creek Gallery.

"Winter" by Milt Kobayashi

New York-based artist Milt Kobayashi is on display at Shoal Creek Gallery.

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Get Mesmerized

Buzzy art collective Mesmerize opens new immersive space in Austin

A woman walks up the exhibit's rainbow stairway to the clouds.

Photo courtesy of Mesmerize.

Living Dream features over 14 interactive, psychedelic art installations, like this dreamlike stairway to the clouds.

On November 13, a new immersive art experience in South Austin officially opened its trippy, dream-like doors. It's by Mesmerize, the team that operated a similar and hugely popular exhibit from 2020-2021 at the now-closed Native Hostel on 5th Street.

Living Dream is a series of mazes and more than 14 installations created by local artists. Guests can move through, interact with, and of course, take psychedelic photos with the space. It's sort of like Meow Wolf, but smaller and with a different storyline and theme.

In Living Dream, the story is that this regular, rather plain-looking warehouse facility in South Austin has been fractured by a strange force of nature: the eight-foot-tall Colossal Crystal. Now lines between ordinary Austin life and fantasy are blurred, and Austinites are welcome to explore it.

See on Instagram

Aside from this crystal centerpiece, other art installations include a dreamy, rainbow mural that you can step inside by artist Inne Aguilar; a projection-mapped room featuring Bill Tavis's signature psychedelic painting style; a tufted hidden crawlspace by Hannah Buserkus; the nightmarish but whimsical "Mulligrub Meadow" by artist Liza Fishbone; and a rainbow stairway to the clouds.

Of course it wouldn't feel right to walk through such a dreamy space in utter silence, so the creators brought in musicians like Alex Scott, A.M. Architect, Austin Ray, Andrea Magee, and many more to create an original score for the experience.

Mesmerize Living Dream Mesmerize shared this photo thanking Inne Aguilar for her work.Mesmerize/Instagram

This multi-sensory and family-friendly adventure may be one of Mesmerize's most in-depth. It operated its Native Hostel exhibit, This Is Mesmerize, for nine months, and racked up countless Instagram posts. The exhibit closed in 2021, about two years before Native Hostel closed. Mesmerize has also collaborated with various artists and and collectives over the years to throw some of the trippiest art parties in town.

Living Dream by Mesmerize is located at 820 Shelby Ln., and is open Wednesdays through Fridays from 3 pm to 11 pm, and Saturdays and Sundays from 11 am to 11 pm.

interactive exhibits immersive