Nature emerges as a powerful storyteller across Austin’s art scene this month. In January, embark on journeys both literal and metaphorical, from Rachel Wolfson Smith's ethereal botanical drawings at Ivester Contemporary to Mónica de Miranda's poetic river voyage at the Blanton Museum.

Ansel Adams's legendary landscapes at the Harry Ransom Center showcase nature's monumental power. Meanwhile, Art for the People's group exhibition demonstrates how contemporary artists interpret the natural world through diverse mediums, from LED installations to traditional oils.

These exhibitions promise to ward off winter's chill with works that warm both the eye and mind.

Ivester Contemporary

Rachel Wolfson Smith: Love & Gravity — Now through January 11
In Love and Gravity, Wolfson Smith's graphite drawings capture the delicate beauty of botanical subjects, from climbing ivy to swaying reeds. Her masterful use of light and shadow creates an airy atmosphere, with strategic contrast guiding viewers' attention. The compositions evoke a fairy tale sensibility, exploring the integration of nature within urban spaces. Complementing her drawings are works in cyanotype on paper, depicting ethereal flora. Through layered marks and imagined landscapes, Love and Gravity reflects on the universal yet intimate experience of caregiving, while inviting viewers to explore themes of growth, transformation, and balance.

Julia C Butridge Gallery

Rachel Noffke:Whole Color, Half Dimension — Now through January 18
Noffke investigates spatial relationships through acrylic paintings and prints. Her work reduces still lifes, landscapes, and interior scenes to their essential elements, using striking color combinations and distinctive patterns. In her creative process, Noffke begins with emotional responses to specific color palettes or patterns, building compositions that bridge personal memory with universal recognition. She playfully challenges dimensional perception by substituting 2D patterns for 3D elements, creating a visual dialogue between flatness and depth.

Austin-Oita Sister City Committee: The Spirit of Friendship: Connecting Hearts — Now through January 18
This exhibition commemorates the 35-year sister city relationship between Austin and Oita, Japan, through an artistic exchange. Central to the exhibition is the work of Daryl Howard, whose journey with Japanese artistry began in 1970s Tokyo, where an encounter with historical Ukiyo-e woodcuts led to an apprenticeship under Master Printmaker Hodaka Yoshida. Organized by the Austin-Oita Sister City Committee, this exhibition showcases cross-cultural collaborations between artists from both cities.

  

Photo courtesy of the Blanton Museum

A Path to the Stars by Mónica de Miranda combines imaginative storytelling with historical events.

Art for the People

Group Exhibition: Revelry is Our Specialty— Now through January 18
Art for the People celebrates its new location with an exhibition showcasing more than 40 Austin-based artists. The show’s diverse roster includes Hallie Rae Ward's multimedia installations incorporating fiber, LEDs, and found objects; Clint Stone's evocative landscape paintings in acrylic and oils; and Patrick Kelleher's nature-inspired mixed media works exploring color and movement.

Unchained Art

Group Exhibition: Favorite Pieces: An Intimate Look at Artistic Personalities — Now through January 25
25 selected artists reveal their creative essence through a single, personally chosen masterwork. Each piece serves as a window into its creator's artistic journey and vision, carefully kept under wraps until the exhibition opening to preserve an element of discovery and surprise. The exhibition brings together an international roster of talent, spanning from Austin's local scene to artists from Dallas, San Antonio, Washington, D.C., Canada, and Europe.

Lydia Street Gallery

Karim B. Hamid: Saturn Returns — Now through January 26
Hamid presents works that function as "psychic archaeology," layering moments in time through an innovative process of construction and deconstruction. Starting with formal and recognizable images, Karim systematically dismantles and rebuilds each composition, creating complex visual palimpsests where each layer both obscures and reveals what came before.

Harry Ransom Center

Ansel Adams: Visualizing His Legacy— Now through February 2
Adams (1902-1984) created iconic American landscape photographs that shaped environmental photography. This exhibition presents Adams's celebrated works alongside those of his predecessors and the photographers he influenced. Photographers like Adams viewed landscapes as both geographic locations and artistic elements to be composed. The exhibition's GIS mapping component shows how these photographs interpret rather than merely documenting their subjects.

Blanton Musuem

Mónica de Miranda: Path to the Stars — Now through March 9
In this exhibition, de Miranda follows a woman's journey along Angola's Kwanza River to its historic confluence with the Atlantic Ocean. Operating between history and fiction, de Miranda's work explores colonial legacy and collective memory, suggesting nature as a source of healing. Through this poetic narrative, she creates a space that blends reality with utopian possibility while examining themes of identity and resistance.