Fair Director’s Picks: Austin 2024

Affordable Art Fair Austin Fair Director, Cori Teague, has narrowed down her top picks ahead of the upcoming first edition. Cori’s highlights not only give you an idea of her personal favorites, but also an idea of what styles to expect at the fair before your visit.

Be inspired and learn more about the selected artworks that have moved her this May from Austin and beyond.

Ronald Mugabe | Galerie Duret

Ugandan figurative painter Ronald Mugabe explores social and political issues such as justice and freedom in his work, drawing on his experience as a homeless child in Kampala. A scholarship to Uganda’s most prestigious art school provided him training in fine arts and textile design, which comes through in the rich textures and bold, expressive colors of his canvases.

Ronald Mugabe, ‘Don’t Bite the Hand’, 2023, acrylic on canvas, 59 x 59in, $7,000, Galerie Duret – Booth A20

Kathleen Hope | Alida Anderson

Kathleen Hope’s background in interior design and color psychology inform her artistic process, in which she prefers to use the raw and unpredictable medium of cement. Hope believes that art should feel “lived in” and I love that this work, Garden Grid (main image), evokes the comforting yet mysterious sight of ivy growing over an old brick wall.

Kathleen Hope, ‘Garden Grid’, 2022, cement, mixed media, 40 x 24in, $2,800, Alida Anderson – Booth B9

Ellen Von Wiegand | Decorazon

Ellen Von Wiegand expresses herself in her art in ways she feels too shy to do so in person, featuring her own nude body in order to confront her insecurities and connect with the viewer. She has said she doesn’t consider her works ‘self-portraits’, rather that she hopes the viewer can find something of themselves in her vulnerability and shared imperfection.

Parvaze | Emmanuelle G Contemporary

Kashmiri chain stitch artist Parvaze creates patterns influenced by Modern art masters like Kandinsky using traditional techniques that pay homage to his Indian heritage. The simplicity of the black and white design here is the perfect showcase for the artist’s skill.

Daisy Patton | Koslov Larsen

Multi-media artist Daisy Patton draws from her experience as the child of an Iranian father she never met and a white mother from the American South to explore in-between places and identities in her work. She is interested in living memory and how our relationships and political and family histories shape the narratives we pass down. This context makes her choice to lightly obscure the female subject’s face and to enclose the photograph from Iran behind barred doors all the more interesting.

Daisy Patton, ‘Untitled (Pink and Magenta Woman with White and Gold Flowers)’, 2023, oil on archival print mounted to panel, 32 x 31in, $7,650, Koslov Larson – Booth C26

Nancy Josephson | Koelsch Gallery

A passion for embellishment and making the mundane beautiful drives Nancy Josephson’s practice. Her objects are “tricked out” with beads, sequins, and found objects, creating unique, joyful, whimsical works of art. I love the way the black and white color palette brings a formality to this deer, which is otherwise a rather humorous and fun object.

Emilie Arnoux | Fremin Gallery

French artist Emilie Arnoux takes inspiration from laid-back surf culture and mid-century beachside postcards. The vivid, warm color palette of her work creates a sense of nostalgia, the feeling you have just as summer is coming to an end and you try to hold it back for a moment longer.

Masaharu Shin | PAGIC Gallery

Through his practice, Japanese artist Masaharu Shin seeks to understand how contemporary art is perceived within the context of modern society. He employs unconventional tools and media in an improvisational style to question the differnet meanings that art can convey in a particular time and place. In this work, color, form, texture, and light create a composition that is soft, yet industrial and messy, yet structured.

Masaharu Shin, ‘肌が触れ合う際に発生する斥力について’, 2022, 40 x 40cm, $2,600, PAGIC Gallery – Booth B8

Valerie Fowler | Lydia Street Gallery

Valerie Fowler grew up an avid Catholic and has always been drawn to altar compositions and religious iconography. Although she no longer practices Catholicism, she began honoring nature in her work in the same way religious paintings might center a saint. Her work is hopeful and reverent amidst the climate crisis, when nature itself seems to be under attack.

Jen Garrido | Wally Workman Gallery

California-based artist Jen Garrido allows her inner dialogue and the gravity of the medium to have agency in her work. She describes a “delicate balance of choice and process” in her drawings and paintings, speaking to both the organic nature of how a work comes to be and the artist’s intention. The jewel tones in this work seem to be mapped out, while the rhythmic forms feel spontaneous, coming together to evoke a lush, tropical landscape.

Jen Garrido, ‘Land Studies’, 2023, mixed media, 24 x 20in, $2,000, Wally Workman Gallery – Booth A19

Thanks so much to Cori for sharing her highlights! All of these artworks and many more will be available to see and purchase at Affordable Art Fair Austin, May 16 – 19.

Book your tickets and take a look at our exhibiting galleries to start planning your visit!