All Arts & Entertainment - Critics Picks

Best Art Gallery Transgression

Almost Real Things’ Touch the Art

Who hasn’t wanted to reach out and touch the brushstrokes of a Van Gogh painting or run your fingers across a Giacometti sculpture? Art should be an experience for all the senses, or at least that’s the philosophy behind Almost Real Things’ annual Touch the Art immersive exhibit. The show isn’t only about questioning the gallery status quo, though. It’s an intentional and thoughtful curation centered on inclusion, with many of the pieces created in collaboration with students from the Texas School for the Blind and Visually Impaired. Touch the Art elevates art appreciation to an entirely new sensory experience.

Most Amazingly Transportive Drag Effects

Gothess Jasmine

There’s only one artist in all of Austin who’s worn a hair chandelier AND a mannequin AND sculpted foam flowers AND many a massive and multishaped wig atop their equally intensely painted head. And that artist? Also the head of Amazing Aeffects, a special effects company behind such fantastical events as Black Fae Day celebration IMOLE, drag competition Legend of the Realms, and a really cool Shrek drag show at Tiny Minotaur that they hosted as sexy Donkey. This artist pushes the boundaries of their drag with every performance, transporting the audience to an entirely new reality via their costumery, dance, and stage presence. If you haven’t already guessed their name, then here’s it plain: There’s nobody out there doing drag art like Gothess Jasmine.

instagram.com/gothess.jasmine

Best Reimagining of Classic Theatre

Walking Shadow Shakespeare Project

TikTok commenters on Danish royals, postapocalyptic wastelands, and borderland warfare told partially in Spanish. None of those descriptors scream “SHAKESPEARE,” but they’re all things Walking Shadow Shakespeare Project includes in their take on the Bard’s greatest hits. WSSP loves and respects Will’s words, but manages to take the core meanings and update them for modern audiences. They retain the poetry of the lines and the drama of emotions, and elevate them beyond high school English trauma. Think Shakespeare is boring? Think again.

walkingshadowshakespeare.com

Most Whimsical, Musical Cowgirls

Mikki Itzigsohn

The women Mikki Itzigsohn paints are unflappable and out of time. In cowgirl hats and cat-eye sunglasses, her acrylic-rendered subjects play electric guitar in the desert and rendezvous at cafes with tigers, quietly content in their mythical worlds. A bassist herself with roots in punk, blues, and garage, the medium-hopping folk artist uses both warm pastels and moody blues in her quest to nod to every corner of Western tradition, from the cult of Connie Converse to the mystical presence of nuns in her native Los Angeles. Most of her figures, content in this colorful universe, don a smirk. Without words, you understand why.

instagram.com/old_mik

Best Celebration of the Open Mic Muses

every.Word Poetry

A microphone stand on a stage alone is the seed of a thousand different blossoms. The verse slingers at the Poet House know this fact intimately, which is why they open up the stage on the first three Mondays of every month at the Vortex to summon the poetic muse at their every.Word Poetry open mic. See, this here’s a sacred format, and every.Word treats it as such, so you’re not gonna get any half-hearted limericks or so-so sonnets. Their format of blending curated performances with night-of sign-ups allows for creative spontaneity with just enough guidance to keep those fingers snapping. And don’t expect the same set of characters for every show as every.Word also offers curated Spanish language and queer-centric showcases.

thepoethouse.org/every-word-poetry

Best Memorial Library for Someone Still Alive

Rod Gator Memorial Library at Sagebrush

It takes a one-of-a-kind reader to receive a memorial library while still turning pages. Rod Gator is the self-proclaimed “rock-and-roll Mr. Rogers” who merits such a bartop borrowing-bookshelf in his honor. When he isn’t working the Sagebrush door with a paperback in hand, you can find the Louisiana native singing in metal band Trip Cigs or his eponymous solo songwriter project. The actor and advocate boasts an eclectic selection at the storied honky-tonk, with horror favorites from Stephen King, memoirs of entertainers and politicians, science-fiction flicks, and classic novels, all embossed with the librarian’s own muscular visage.

Best Place to Fiddle Around

Central Texas Bluegrass Association's Sunday Bluegrass Jam at Batch

The Central Texas Bluegrass Association has been doing their Sunday Bluegrass Jam in a succession of locations since 1978, but none may have been as well suited physically as Batch Craft Beer and Kolaches. The large backyard can accommodate three different fiddle circles at once, and you’ll see them form and dissolve, and players shift back and forth between them, as the afternoon goes on. (Jams typically go from 1-4pm.) Come to play, or come to listen. Or come to play bocce and let the kids run free in the play area, and be delighted by the eclectic background music.

centraltexasbluegrass.org

Best Reason to Smash Plates

LL Kintsugi Ceramics

In the ancient Japanese art of Kintsugi, it’s the imperfections and brokenness that offer the opportunity for beauty to emerge. By repairing broken ceramics with a gold-flaked lacquer and a deft hand, those chipped and cracked dishes can become reimagined statement pieces. Lauren Luscombe is the only Kintsugi artist in Austin to be officially trained and certified in Japan, and her workshops are as much philosophical healing as they are pottery rejuvenation. Her own work is a marvel of colorful revitalization, putting the pieces back together into an altogether new whole. Who among us can’t relate?

llkintsugi.com

Best Church-Turned-DIY Stage

Cherrywood Center

Cherrywood Center’s second coming is just as community-centered, but the sounds are a little different. The spacious worship space is doing double duty these days as a meeting place for religious congregations and DIY musicians, hosting intimate indie rock-centered shows in its hallowed, reverberant halls. “When there’s so much change constantly around us, it’s refreshing to go into a space that’s been here longer than all of the condos and re-infuse some energy into it from folks of a younger generation,” Cherrywood Center’s campus manager and booking coordinator Chase Weinacht told the Chronicle in February.