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Returning after a long winter’s rest is local reading series Downpour ATX, whose mission is to build a community for writers and readers from marginalized communities. “Beckoning to our own fondness for place-based writing,” they say, “we take inspiration from the sudden deluges of rainfall in Texas – which can both serve as balms after a drought and formidable events of nature – and celebrate the newness, abundance, and energy that a downpour ushers in.” This week they’ll host three talented wordsmiths: poet KB Brookins (Freedom House), novelist Lilas Taha (Lost and Found in Thyme series), and attorney/writer Wajiha Rizvi. – James Scott

This sweet opportunity comes to us from the Downtown Austin Alliance, the Pease Park Conservancy, and Ride Bikes Austin – so we know it's a damned good thing indeed. Take the self-guided Art & Parks Tour to explore the best of what Downtown Austin art and parks have to offer through this selection of curated murals, artworks, and green spaces. You can sign up anytime, so click that URL and get ready to learn the most vibrantly visual parts of your city soon – live and in person.

Alejandra Almuelle has been responsible for some of the most compelling works of clay sculpture ever created in this city, many of them predicated on the human body and its potential as a record of experience. This latest exhibition of her artistry, a solo show at Women & Their Work, brings the human form front and center, clayborne with additions of graphite, beeswax, paper, resin, and gold and silver leaf. Adorned, embellished, emboldened, the flesh created from clay comes full circle, a cycle of memory and magic powered by beauty, the viewing of it an experience we recommend recording via your own wonder-hungry rods and cones. – Wayne Alan Brenner

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!

Traveling in Mexico, you frequently encounter changarritos – portable food carts or tienditas run by hardworking entrepreneurs. The carts usually operate outside of any formal regulation and, in that way, mirror the resilience and creativity of Mexican culture. In 2005, artist Máximo González appropriated the concept of the changarrito as a way for artists to take their work directly to the people. The idea came to Austin’s venerable Mexic-Arte Museum in 2012, with dozens of artists displaying art and interacting with the public outside the Downtown gallery. The concept is back and will run through August. – Brant Bingamon

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.

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.

It all began with a list of those little moments and wonders in life, created by writer Duncan Macmillan as a short play called Sleeve Notes. But over time that list evolved through multiple iterations until it finally became Every Brilliant Thing, a one-man play based around the list of everything best in life delivered by a 6-year-old boy to his mother as he tries to understand this thing called depression. Joseph Garlock takes on the part originated by Jonny Donahue, all with the assistance of the audience. Post-show talkbacks with representatives from the National Alliance on Mental Illness Central Texas and Integral Care take place May 3 and 17. – Richard Whittaker

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.

They say Texas is the gun capital of America; no arguments here. And many gun collectors treat them almost like toys, taking pride in amassing safeloads of the things and procuring the latest gadgets. Internationally acclaimed Italian photographer Gabriele Galimberti set out to capture images of American gun owners among their massive collections of weapons for “Ameriguns,” resulting in some stunning imagery. This series is juxtaposed with children showcasing their toy collections for “Toy Stories,” for which Galimberti also made observations about socioeconomic and other factors influencing the subjects’ relationship to their possessions, making for a thoughtful and provocative exhibition. – Kat McNevins

Art conservation can be a contradiction: to destroy to preserve. Thus it is with the HRC and its efforts to restore the Clarkson Stanfield album, one of the most remarkable volumes in the history of art photography. More correctly known as “100 Calotypes by D. O. Hill, R.S.A., and R. Adamson,” the collection of over 100 salted paper prints was collated by the photographers for landscape artist Stanfield and depicts the lords, laborers, clergy, and scientists of 19th-century Scotland and the landscapes in which they lived. Currently undergoing repairs, the center staff are using its deconstructed state to display 39 plates, along with more works from Hill and Adamson, as separate works since the first time they were bound. – Richard Whittaker

Tusa, Sicily, in addition to being a beautiful seaside Italian village, was also birthplace to artist Jeffrey Dell’s newest monotypes. He created the works during an artist’s residency, utilizing traditional printmaking materials to capture the vertical nature of his surroundings. In his artist’s statement, Dell explains his goal with the monotypes as interrogating what happens between seeing and understanding images. “The mind wants and expects to see certain things and is capable of leaping ahead,” Dell writes. “Mostly those leaps are amazingly correct, but sometimes they’re wrong. I’m trying to make work that creates a moment when it’s possible to notice such dynamics while also avoiding the ‘punchline’ of an optical illusion – that is, to deny a moment of ‘getting it.’” – James Scott

How do we experience each singular second of our lives? An enormous question for an event listing, sure, but that’s exactly what artist Karn Knutson tackles in her current exhibition. “Knutson attempts to show us ourselves in moments of reflection,” the show description reads, “contemplating the transitions through life, processing the struggles, finding ways forward with knowledge, sometimes hard lessons from our past, and learning from our choices good and bad. She aims to represent the things we all feel but can’t always express until we see something that lets us talk about it outside ourselves.” Maybe the something that unlocks your inner feelings is waiting just inside Link & Pin, ready to unleash all those singular seconds. – James Scott

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.

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.

A piece of Dallas artist Molly Sydnor lives in Austin this spring thanks to “After the Rain Part I,” a Big Medium pop-up exhibition of bright textiles. Like a touchable rainbow, the multicolor weavings run ceiling-to-floor in a tiny room of the arts organization’s South Congress Avenue gallery space. The claustrophobic container may “evoke anxiety,” the artist notes, but for Sydnor, the act of weaving is a meditative process. Catch the display from 7 to 9pm on Tuesdays and Thursdays, or weekends from 11am to 4pm. – Carys Anderson

Enter the fascinating world of illusions in this new venue that boasts a stunning array of intriguing visual, sensory, and educational experiences among new, unexplored optical wonderments.

This multimedia exhibition is a comprehensive exploration of the beauty of botanical forms, expressed realistically and in the abstract, featuring the work of local artist Francine Funke.

South Austin’s first dedicated comedy venue is spearheaded by local comics Martin Henn, Andre Ricks, and Raza Jafri, and brings top-notch acts to South Austin every Wednesday through Saturday. Note: The upcoming comics – including nationally touring acts, local sweethearts, and everyone in between – will be listed on Instagram each night.

This exhibition of new work by Kate Breakey showcases hand-colored photography of the natural world, particularly of Texan and Australian landscapes, animals, and insects.

Black cultural studies scholar Lisa B. Thompson’s “theatrical love letter to Black women and girls” premieres to a sold-out crowd this Friday at the Vortex. The choreopoem – which incorporates music, movement, and design, and culminates in an audience dance party – is “about embracing the ‘soft life’ for Black women, whose labor and dedication has sustained people, communities, and institutions,” says Thompson, who conceived of the idea during her 2021 MacDowell artist residency. The show was subsequently developed during a 2023-24 Texas Performing Arts and Fusebox residency, and includes songs co-written with composers Guthrie P. Ramsey, Jr. and Vince Anthony, as well as collaborations with choreographer Sadé M. Jones. The show runs Thu.-Sun. through May 4, and tickets are selling fast! – Lina Fisher

The opportunity to witness, in person, the creative expression of different times and diverse cultures is one of the perks of city-dwellers everywhere – and exemplified by the collections and traveling exhibitions hosted by UT’s acclaimed Blanton Museum of Art. The Blanton’s newest show displays masterpieces from Edo-period Japan, on loan from the Worcester Art Museum through June 30. These “pictures of the floating world” depict the lifestyle, pleasures, and interests of the urban population – samurais, geishas, kabuki actors, boat parties, palaces, and lush landscapes. As then, so now: Much of who we are is what we do with our lives. – Wayne Alan Brenner

This snazzy spot for local and national stand-up acts has shows almost every night of the week.

The diverse lineup of hilarious, always surprising improv shows continues, with Pgraph and Maestro and the Big Bash and more, for the most unexpected delights of in-person entertainment.

OMG, it’s prom season, y’all! And what could make it better than four Broadway stars making it all about themselves? Zach presents the catchy tale of desperate thespians trying to gain relevance by “helping” a small town prom be less bigoted. Set to toe-tapping tunes, this musical entertains and educates. There will be laughs, love, and you know, someone might just learn something along the way. – Cat McCarrey

Many among us remember the iridescent colors within beloved children’s book The Rainbow Fish, so why not give the young’uns of today a chance to enjoy that beauty in a new way. This musical extravaganza brings the story of sharing and belonging to the stage with costumes, songs, and sets as mesmerizing as the titular fish’s sparkling scales. Led by Austin Scottish Rite Theater’s own Artistic Director Deanna Belardinelli, “this school of fish moves as a unit and have their fins, pincers and tentacles outreached, beckoning you to join!” Go ahead, Reader: Dive in. – James Scott

Over six decades, internationally acclaimed artist Hunt Slonem has created his own universe, with pieces in the Met, the Whitney, Guggenheim, et al. and celeb collectors from Sharon Stone to the Kardashian clan. Known for vibrant neo-expressionist works starring the three B’s – bunnies, birds, and butterflies – the New Yorker even paints with a bird or two from his personal aviary perched on his shoulder. This comprehensive display brings together over 100 works spanning oil paintings to blown glass, and is presented in conjunction with “Huntopia,” opening May 4 at San Antonio Botanical Garden. – Kat McNevins

Minneapolis-born and -raised, Elizabeth Olds lived to a sturdy 94 but didn’t get the attention she deserved in her lifetime. The Harry Ransom Center’s new exhibit, which opened Feb. 3 and runs through July 14, aims to rectify that with a first-of-its-kind look back at more than 100 of her prints, paintings, drawings, and illustrations from the 1920s to the 1960s. Of particular note: her depictions of social and political change from her time as a Works Progress Administration printmaker. Want to go deeper? Drop in for one of the daily docent tours. – Kimberley Jones

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.

Accenting soft, blurred pastels with sharp acrylics, Yamin Li’s “Gnortsma” exhibit reflects the uncertainty of life as an immigrant. Nothing is quite right in the series’ 20 paintings; the Chinese artist blends “habitual objects” – houses, trees, toys – with more unexpected ones, like a figure rendered with childlike collage bearing a medieval spear and sword. Li debuts her works at a May 2 opening ceremony, which runs from 5:30 to 7:30pm. Afterward, the Central Library will display the exhibit until July 14. – Carys Anderson