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It's the re-animated subconscious of Lieutenant Ray Mallory! Based on encounters with a brilliant, unknown inventor and VCR repairman, lead artist Matthew Steinke synthesizes the musical inventions and hacked appliances that filled Ray’s living room in the late Nineties, using software, video, sound, and music to animate machine bodies in a physical space. Based on 1) what Steinke's done previously and 2) his coterie of talented collaborators – Thomas Echols, Bryce Kassen, Jesse Peterson, Joshua Pablo Rosenstock, Katie Wood, and Kay HE (Yuanyuan) – we reckon this is a don't-miss-it sonic and performative event.

This 14th annual convention spans two fun-filled days with more than 200 vendors showcasing independently made comics, zines, art, crafts, and games. Visitors can meet the artists, sit in on tutorials and panels on the creating of webcomics, writing for videogames, and more. Your ever-enterprising Uncle Staple has wrangled an excellent lineup of celebrity guests this year – including Ngozi Ukazu, Colleen Coover, Jen Wang, Vanesa Del Rey, Paul Benjamin, and Lilah Sturges – and we suspect this might be the best Staple! of them all.

After 20 years in advertising design, animation, and video game development, this local artist is best known for his iconic Austin scenes and neon sign paintings; his latest series combines characters and text pulled from brightly colored food packaging.

This exhibition is enhanced with artifacts providing historical context for the paintings, rich with the unbroken connection the Comanche people have with their roots. Also, Rodeo: The Exhibition. Boy howdy, it's the history of the Texas rodeo – vibrant, interactive, and fully documented in this fine new show.

The show's title refers to the computer-driven process that "stretches the visionary potential of its human co-creators and viewers alike with its alien sensibilities." On display here, in mindwarping irreality: a selection of videos, digital prints, and video slideshows by Simon Russell, David Bennett, James Pricer, and Sean Capone. Recommended.

Here we go again, right? Recommending something beyond the city limits? We know, we know: There's already too much to cover properly and we should stick to Austin. But, damnit, this work by Anita Cooke, tell you what, it's so worth the drive to see it. Layers upon layers, textures upon textures, patterns and colors like these big and striking fabric-based pieces just grew, like some especially baroque form of coral. But you know the woman's spent hours and hours and hours, days on end, on each one. So, maybe make a day of it? See this show, check out the surrounding antique shops and all, get you a fine lunch or dinner in one of G-Town's decent eateries? Yes.

That's Boston Terriers, to be specific, as Guzu presents a Terrier Cvlt exhibition of pop-culture creativity celebrating the renowned black-and-white breed, featuring work by artists from all over the country.

Ed Ruscha, anyone? We'll bet yes – we're big fans ourselves – and now here's a diverse selection of the celebrated American artist’s books, photographs, drawings, and pprints. With archival production materials, preliminary sketches, and studio notebooks; with more than 150 objects providing visitors an unprecedented look into Ruscha's creative process. And the Chronicle's Melany Jean tells more about this show right here.

St. Edward's University continues its five-year series with this latest exhibition of alumni work, featuring the hyperreal food portraits (and more) of that artistic force of nature (painter, writer, director, actor, dancer, improviser) called Beeler.

In this new show, three Austin-based painters – Neena Buxani, Helen Buck, and Rhea Pettit – vividly express their impressions of ordinary (and extraordinary) courageous womanhood.

Austin artist Valerie Fowler has created a body of work that includes paintings, drawings, and mixed media inspired by the light, air, and landscape that is Flower Hill, the 1877 Austin home to three generations of the Smoot family. Sounds … good? If you know Fowler's work, you know that this sounds, actually, great – and will look even better.

Almost a decade and a half of SouthPop already? Yes, and now the venue that celebrates all the long strange years of live-music Austin that have gone before, now that bastion of funky cultural puissance on South Lamar brings an eclectic show of works from the permanent collection to their storied walls.

The Austin History Center's latest exhibit spotlights local efforts to create social change over the decades, including the Civil Rights and Women's Liberation movements. Residents are invited to upload personal photos of recent marches and rallies for inclusion.

This place, ah, it's one of our favorite places in the entire city; and of course they're properly corona-closed. But check 'em out online right now – it's a rich, wonder-filled website – to whet your appetite for when things get back to … uh … are we still calling it "normal," these days?

Prize juror Sedrick Huckaby has selected French Canadian sculptor Shanie Tomassini as this year's winner, and so the artist receives a full exhibition of her work, featuring oversized sculptures, fountains, and negative-space forms installed throughout the Umlauf’s six-acre site. And what does the Chronicle's Melany Jean have to say about this?

All high school students are invited to submit their original artwork for consideration. The winning student gets an internship with artist Janis Fowler, to transform their work into a full-size mural on Chicon Street in East Austin.