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Those irrepressible champions of all that's creative in this town, Almost Real Things, present the last stay-at-home art & music fest of their short-lived, just-in-the-nick-of-time series. All sorts of artists representing a plethora of genres are featured in this blow-out event (Oh! It's a three-hour tour, little buddy! With Mike Melinoe, Dossey, Easy Compadre!, Trupica, PrintAustin, Mystica Fiora, and more!) – and there's a VIP party box full of drinks, snacks, a packed gift bag, and a full printmaking workshop to add a wonderful tactile element to the party. (Bonus: Use the code artfriend for $10 off.)

The Modern Architecture + Design Society presents the 13th annual showcase of Austin's greatest modern homes – gone virtual this year, naturally – with each home on the tour displayed through a combination of photos, video, 3-D imaging, and live panel discussions with Q&A. You can watch live and ask questions, or rewatch later and explore the homes on your own (via the 360˚ imaging) – all segments will be available to view after the live event ends.

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.

Aria Brownell and Sidney Westenskow investigate memory and the pockets of messy nostalgia that define one’s self, both artists working within bold forms of portraiture and self-portraiture.

The painter Joyce Howell’s palette is informed by nature and its flux between calm and chaos. She describes it as an ongoing conversation.

This is a retrospective of the creative journey that painter Kevin Greer started alone inside his studio during the lockdown that continued through this past month. You want to see some vivid, multicolored abstractions like strategically shattered shards of somebody's lysergic and fire-marked dreams? Then, says Brenner, you should see this.

Visit mid-century Hollywood without leaving Austin through an up-close view of these Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer studio assets. This first-ever public viewing of 12 historic Golden Age of Film backdrops provides a look into the nearly lost art of hand-painted Hollywood scenic art. Bonus: Re-creations of other backdrops in the collection, as painted by UT scenic art students training with Karen Maness. And, look: Robert Faires reports on the show right here.

Inspired by the Mexican American Cultural Center's annual La Mujer celebration – and by the first feminist of the New World, Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz – this online group exhibit is curated by April Garcia and features womxn-identifying and nongender-specific artists whose artwork is tied to activism, feminism, cultural. and gender identity storytelling, environmental protection, and socioeconomic parity.

Bucky Miller – artist, writer, recipient of the Aaron Siskind Foundation Individual Photographer’s Fellowship – has exhibited in solo shows at Houston's Contemporary Arts Museum and more, and his work's also been featured in publications like n+1, Der Greif, The Believer, and Glasstire. He says: "The photographs and other things in 'Slow Season' constitute a love note to friends about the very reasonable joys of slow and sporadic attentiveness. When lost in the fog, it helps to pause. Unhurried, there is room for puppet theater. Do not worry: It will be clear the puppets were an asset once things get moving again."

The journey, the process, the times in between, the present moment in which we find ourselves: "Nothing Is" features photographs, video, and installation works by Leon Alesi and Amy Bench, deconstructing and reassembling artifacts, transitional objects, talismans, and icons as expressions of momentary (or eternal) tension. The gallery is open Fridays, noon-6pm, by appointment; Saturdays, noon-6pm (no appointment necessary). Bonus: the always-viewable Window Dressing show in the gallery's front window features works by Veronica Ceci, Michael Villarreal, and Rodell Warner.

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.

Mexic-Arte Museum presents an exhibition of selections from the Juan Antonio Sandoval Jr. collection, an array of work that is considered one of the most important Latinx art collections in the United States.

This is a group show by relay, begun in July of 2020 as a method of socially distancing a community in the height of the pandemic: Artists took turns alone in the space, each adding to the exhibition. Now, as it nears its close, the exhibition resembles a community in which work converses and overlaps. With Adreon Henry, Vy Ngo, Dawn Okoro, Leon Alesi, Matt Steinke, Sev Coursen, Stella Alesi, and more.

New paintings from Austin's Andy St. Martin. "Like all my paintings, collage, and drawings," says the artist, "these new ones are a chain reaction of reactions, reflections, decisions (about them, paintings, and life and light, literally). They're my activity, evaluation, commitment incarnate, and contract with myself." Ah, "commitment incarnate," we love that. See what it means in this bright painterly context: Schedule a visit or check out the gallery's front room that's illuminated nightly, 6-10pm, through March 22. Need we say more?

Featuring works by Robert Jackson Harrington, Annie Miller, Liz Rodda, and Tammie Rubin, "staycation iv: (un)promised potential" explores concepts that generate and change through repetition, contradiction, and fictional narratives. Note: In conjunction with this exhibition, MASS Close Encounters will offer virtual programming with the artists via their Instagram.

Leo Steinberg's wide-ranging scholarship addresses such canonical artists as Michelangelo Buonarroti, Leonardo da Vinci, Peter Paul Rubens, Pablo Picasso, and Jasper Johns. Here the Blanton presents selections from the scholar's vast collection – an impressive array of highlights from the European printmaking tradition.

Austin-born and internationally acclaimed, Deborah Roberts critiques notions of beauty, the body, race, and identity in contemporary society through the lens of Black children. (Her first solo museum presentation in Texas, "I'm," is part of The Contemporary Austin's participation in the Feminist Art Coalition – a nationwide initiative of art institutions to generate awareness of feminist thought, experience, and action through exhibitions and events.) Norway's Torbjørn Rødland works with analog technology and readymade spaces to create photographs that render the everyday uncanny. His images blend the cool, seductive aestheticism of commercial and fashion photography with the layered complexity of a conceptual practice, resulting in ambivalent perspectives that both attract and repulse.

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?

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.

The local powerhouse of figurative painting, the art school that's the smart school for artists of all kinds, they've got a painting-along-at-home series going to help you keep your skills honed in these socially restrictive times, featuring live costumed models posing on camera and a thriving community of creatives rendering that lovely human biotecture from their separate studios. "Join us for a three-hour costumed-model drawing session. Use any supplies you wish, listen to music, share your work, chat with others. It’s a great way to stay connected with your art community!"