Almost Real Things

💖 Meet the Artists of FORTRESS 💖

Kate Csillagi, Kate Csillagi, is an interdisciplinary Austin artist whose practice grew out of zines, punk flyers, and album art and now spans murals and immersive installations. Her work summons guardian figures and personal mythologies, creating spaces where the surreal and the sacred coexist.

Hope Hummingbird, Hope Hummingbird, is a ceramic artist and educator based in Austin, Texas. Her fine art practice centers on porcelain portraiture, often depicting fellow local artists and feminist icons throughout history.

Lauren Napolitano, Lauren Napolitano, is a self-taught contemporary folk artist based in Austin who works in ceramics, painting, murals, and tattooing, drawing inspiration from her Mexican ancestry and travels.

The September Broadcast of ART Network is here! We sharing exciting events coming up + found opportunities you don’t want to miss!

Event #1: Our first upcoming event is next Wednesday at Canopy with Art Spark Texas! We think all AST artists should come and learn about how to make their stop more accessible 🫶

Event #2: Next up is the 10/2 opening of
FORTRESS, a group exhibition at Almost Real Things Gallery at Canopy featuring work [email protected], Lauren Napolitano, and Hope Hummingbird! 🤩

OPP-ART-UNITY #1: ICOSA COLLECTIVE’s Annual Call for Art!

OPP-ART-UNITY #2: FUTURE FRONT’s call for vendors + artists for their Fall Front Market!

OPP-ART-UNITY #3: The Gallery ATX’s call for artists who do not have a studio to show at for the Austin Studio Tour

SAVE THE DATE! We’re so excited to host Hope Hummingbird, Kate and Lauren for their group exhibition FORTRESS!

FORTRESS brings together three women artists considering a fundamental question: What might we create if we quit inheriting the old world and began imagining the next one?

Join us at our gallery at Canopy on October 2nd to view all new artwork spanning the mediums of ceramics, paintings, sculpture and found objects. Together in FORTRESS, these artists charge the space with an intimate look beyond the veil, inviting us into an unruly place of becoming.

We want y’all to get to know our team better before the Team kicks off so you always have a friendly face in the crowd. 🤩 you’ll find us manning the ART Bus, hawking merch at AST Hubs and having an unbelievable amount of FUN!

We asked each of our team members to share some fun facts and life updates since the last Tour! 🥳

We know you’re not supposed to have a favorite Social Hour.. but our last Social Hour was up there 💖

Chester A. Rivera 📸 led a workshop about photobooks and specifically how to sequence images. He brought his own (beautiful) images and guests sorted through them for their own photobook!

We would love to do more activities at upcoming Social Hours. :) Or maybe even a panel about accessibility in the arts as folks start thinking about opening up their spaces for AST? Maybe! 🤫

Nat and Zach have clearly always been very serious about art 🧐

They’ve been organizing art shows since college, like for Nat’s senior exhibition pictured here (Zach designed the branding of course).

We’d love to time travel and tell Baby Zach & Nat they’ll be coordinating the largest art event in Austin featuring 700+ artists and spanning 230+ locations! 

Pinching ourselves as we write this + wait for your Austin Studio Tour applications to keep rolling in! 🤏🏻

We take the news VERY seriously. Don’t believe us? We present you with these select clips from our JuAugust Broadcast of ART Network 🤪

We clearly had so much fun filming this episode and are excited to share it with you!

✨Friendly reminder that ART Club Members are always the first to watch these monthly Broadcasts!