Fair Director’s picks from Austin 2026

Lauren Jaben

Davis Gallery and Framing
Stand C10
This piece is a quietly compelling study in balance, texture, and restraint. Created using collage on 100% cotton rag paper, the work draws viewers in through its layered composition and luminous use of turquoise, a hue that feels both grounding and expansive. Jaben’s careful arrangement of forms and materials creates a sense of rhythm and tension, inviting close inspection and slow contemplation.

Lucey McKie ROI

Lime Tree Gallery
Stand C14
Blueberries with Two Lemons by Lucey McKie ROI is a refined still life that celebrates the quiet power of everyday objects. Painted in oil on canvas, the composition presents exactly what its title promises: four blueberries resting on a tabletop alongside two lemons, rendered with clarity and care. McKie’s confident handling of light and surface elevates the familiar, allowing subtle shifts in color, texture, and shadow to bring the scene to life. Unassuming yet precise, this work highlights the beauty found in simplicity and the enduring appeal of classical still‑life painted through a contemporary lens.

The Cathedral
Stand C8
PEACHY FELLAS by Abbey Engrav is a striking, pop‑inflected composition that plays with repetition, contrast, and identity. Set against a crisp white background, the painting features a chorus of red‑toned cowboy figures rendered with graphic clarity and bold confidence. Among them, a single figure on horseback in black‑and‑white greyscale stands apart, immediately drawing the eye and disrupting the visual rhythm of the scene. Created in oil and acrylic on canvas, the work balances scale and simplicity with layered meaning and invites questions of individuality, belonging, and difference within a collective. Engrav’s contemporary take on Western iconography feels both playful and pointed, offering a fresh reinterpretation of a familiar symbol through color, contrast, and composition.

Margo Lunsford-Chacon

Commerce Gallery
Stand F2
Areole by Margo Lunsford‑Chacon is a luminous, contemplative work that brings the natural world into sharp, intimate focus. Rendered in acrylic and oil on canvas, the painting depicts elongated, cactus‑like forms rising from a deep, dark ground, their surfaces marked by subtle tonal shifts and precise detailing. The saturated greens appear almost illuminated against the surrounding black, creating a sense of quiet drama and reverence. Lunsford‑Chacon’s attention to texture and edge gives the forms a sculptural presence, blurring the line between realism and abstraction.

Isabelle Menin

Muriel Guepin
Stand E5
Rome ou la Tentation du passé #1 by Isabelle Menin is a richly layered composition that blurs the boundaries between memory, imagination, and the classical past. Presented as a large‑scale fine art print, the work assembles fragments of florals, painterly gestures, and atmospheric forms into a dreamlike tableau that feels both opulent and unresolved. Soft blushes and muted neutrals are punctuated by moments of intricate detail, guiding the eye through a fluid visual narrative where elements appear to drift, dissolve, and re‑emerge. At once sensual and cerebral, this editioned work rewards extended viewing, revealing new connections with every encounter.

Laura Clay and Cade Kegerreis

Washington Gallery
Stand B4
This piece by Laura Clay and Cade Kegerreis is a contemplative collaboration that explores memory, time, and the act of looking. Painted in oil on canvas, the composition is structured through a series of vertical panels that interrupt and reframe an expansive sky, creating a sense of fragmentation and longing. Soft clouds drift across a warm, atmospheric ground, while a solitary figure at the edge of the composition peers through a telescope, suggesting both curiosity and distance. The dialogue between the artists is evident in the balance of narrative and abstraction, where space feels at once vast and carefully considered. Quietly poetic, In Search of Yesterday invites viewers to consider how moments are remembered, reconstructed, and forever just out of reach.

Laurie Carswell

Verdant Gallery
Stand B6
Higher View by Laurie Carswell is an expansive, intricately constructed landscape that invites viewers to slow down and take in its layered complexity. Created from varnished cut paper on panel, the work assembles fragments of pattern, text, and color into a sweeping vista that feels both panoramic and deeply detailed. Blue‑gray skies unfold above rolling terrain, while fields, foliage, and distant horizons are built from meticulously cut and collaged elements that blur the line between representation and abstraction. Carswell’s process is evident in every carefully placed layer, creating a rhythmic interplay between movement and stillness.

Greenstage Gallery
Stand F4
Sharing Plates by Sara Huxley is a joyful, richly layered celebration of food, color, and togetherness. Created in mixed media on canvas, the composition presents a tabletop view of shared dishes, each rendered with bold outlines and painterly textures. Huxley’s lively palette and expressive mark‑making lend the scene a sense of movement and informality, echoing the conviviality suggested by the title. Collaged elements and gestural brushstrokes add depth and visual complexity, blurring the boundary between observation and memory. Both playful and thoughtful, “Sharing Plates” captures the simple pleasure of communal moments, transforming an everyday ritual into a vibrant, contemporary still life.

Hildi Malcolm

Wally Workman Gallery
Stand E4
Interstellar Caterpillar by Hildi Malcom is a dazzling, otherworldly composition that merges ornament, symbolism, and material experimentation. Constructed from an intricate combination of acrylic, metal, cork, nylon cord, yarn, mirrored acrylic, and polyester film on canvas, the work unfolds as a richly layered tapestry of cosmic and organic forms. Floral motifs intertwine with geometric structures and luminous gold‑toned elements, creating a sense of movement that feels both mechanical and alive. Reflective surfaces catch the light, shifting the viewer’s experience as they move. This piece is an expansive meditation on growth, hybridity, and the boundless possibilities of mixed‑media expression.

Kandice Pierce

The Art Suite
Stand C11
High Noon by Kandice Pierce is a striking study of stillness, light, and quiet endurance. Part of a series developed during an artist residency in Terlingua, Texas, the painting depicts a single octillo suspended against a wall. Inspired by Monet’s devotion to painting the same subject under changing conditions, this work turns its focus to darkness, examining how texture and form persist in the near absence of light. Deep chromatic tones and restrained illumination evoke the subtle glow of the Terlingua night sky, allowing the wall’s surface and the octillo’s structure to emerge gradually. Tall and commanding in scale, High Noon transforms a quiet desert observation into a meditative, almost reverent exploration of presence after sundown.