Ostillo Foundation: In Search of Austin |

During my long-haul flight to Austin, I discovered myself studying articles concerning the metropolis’s well-known slogan, “Keep Austin Weird,” which has been a part of its identification for many years. The notion instantly captured my creativeness: some ineffable factor price preserving in a spot recognized for reside music, colourful characters, impartial companies, and, extra not too long ago, a quickly rising technological infrastructure. But what was this factor?

By the time I left the airport and headed towards downtown, the query was already starting to reply itself. Austin appeared to be presenting two variations of itself without delay. On the street, a futuristic gold Tesla Cybercab supplied a glimpse of a metropolis racing towards tomorrow, carrying vacationers and locals by means of streets more and more formed by know-how. Yet past it stood the older Austin: weathered buildings and the sleek silhouette of the Texas capitol, holding its floor towards the town’s speedy transformation. It was an uneasy coexistence of reminiscence and ambition.

There was barely time to cease on the lodge. I took a second to catch my breath earlier than heading again towards East Austin for the grand opening of Ostillo, a brand new artwork basis based by developer and artwork collector René Campos along with artwork advisor Sacha Zerbib, who now serves as Ostillo’s founding director and chief curator. After the lengthy journey and my first glimpse of Austin’s stressed mixture of outdated and new, arriving at Ostillo felt like entering into yet one more side of the town: a putting, all-black, hangar-like construction that serves as a gathering level the place Austin’s cultural neighborhood can encounter creative views from world wide.

Zerbib describes their goal: “We developed this ambitious and thought-provoking collection with the intention of sharing it with the public. At a time when many are seeking connection and inspiration, our goal is to create a welcoming space with a program that addresses pressing social issues through artistic expression and resonates with both local audiences and visitors from around the world.” 

The opening exhibition, “Masquerade” (2026), brings collectively portray, sculpture, and pictures by fourteen artists, every approaching the enduring concept of the masks from a distinct perspective. The exhibition consists of works by Kader Attia, María Berrío, Marlene Dumas, Evan Holloway, Sanya Kantarovsky, Glenn Ligon, Paulo Nazareth, Damián Ortega, Adam Pendleton, Mohammed Sami, Thomas Schütte, Sylvia Snowden, Salman Toor, and Christopher Wool. Walking by means of the exhibition, I’m instantly drawn to Sanya Kantarovsky’s Nervous Man (2017). An outsized cowboy hat evokes a efficiency of American masculinity, whereas the unclothed topic beneath it, seated on a rest room, seems shy and withdrawn, caught in an atypical but intensely personal second. Through this refined disjunction between outward look and interior fragility, Kantarovsky constructs a scene through which irony, discomfort, and emotional publicity quietly unfold. 

Right beside it’s Glenn Ligon’s Masquerade #9 (2006), from a collection impressed by James Baldwin’s 1953 essay “Stranger in the Village.” Using a silkscreen course of, Ligon transfers passages of Baldwin’s textual content onto the work’s canvas floor, combining ink and coal mud into dense, virtually impenetrable fields of language. In an adjoining room, Adam Pendleton’s Untitled (masks) (2018–19) belongs to a gaggle of Mylar works through which pictures are reproduced onto clear sheets. A motif impressed by a Dan masks from Liberia is printed on 4 separate sheets, every overlaid with a definite summary design. The interaction between the printed panels, displayed in a single row, generates shifting results of transparency and opacity, shifting the motif from background to foreground and again once more.

This concept of the picture being repeatedly mediated and remodeled continues in Christopher Wool’s Untitled (2018). An almost symmetrical type dominates the composition, its rounded form evoking a head, masks, or bodily presence with out resolving right into a secure determine. Areas of dense black pigment lie alongside expanses of uncovered linen, making a rigidity between recognition and ambiguity. Here, nevertheless, the picture appears to maneuver even additional away from secure illustration. The work exemplifies Wool’s sustained exploration of the transient relationship between the picture, its copy, and its subsequent abstraction.

For Zerbib, Ostillo’s public function brings a brand new duty: “A private collection can be extremely personal, but a foundation must also understand where it stands, whom it speaks to, and what it can contribute. The aim is not to mirror today’s art world, but to contribute to tomorrow’s conversations.” It is an concept that locations Ostillo not merely inside Austin’s rising cultural panorama, however in dialog with it, utilizing the gathering as a place to begin for dialogue between the town, its neighborhood, and the broader worldwide artwork world. To rejoice the opening, artist and musician Lonnie Holley remodeled the area, making a charged and atmospheric expertise that prolonged the exhibition past the gallery partitions. His efficiency supplied a second of pause, permitting the ambiance of the exhibition to settle and broaden past the artworks themselves.

The following day, we had the prospect to discover René’s household ranch outdoors Austin, the place the essence of Texan life felt vividly current as soon as once more. Away from the town, the calm of the panorama and the persistence of native traditions supplied a putting distinction to Austin’s speedy improvement. It was a reminder of the duality that defines the area: a metropolis more and more formed by progress, alongside a quieter lifestyle rooted within the land and in household.

It was then time to return to the town, this time for a soccer sport between the Longhorns, the native college staff, and UTSA. At the stadium, multiple hundred thousand followers gathered to cheer for his or her staff, turning the sport right into a collective celebration that prolonged far past the sector. Around the stadium, households gathered in parking heaps, grilling barbecue and spending time collectively earlier than and throughout the sport. Football right here felt much less like a sporting occasion and extra like a deeply rooted social custom — a ritual that brings collectively neighborhood, household, and an unmistakable sense of Texas identification.

The expertise jogged my memory that one in all Ostillo Foundation’s missions is to create an area the place college students can spend time collectively, trade concepts, and have interaction in dialog.

On my final day, I had the prospect to discover the town by means of its stunning landscapes, unimaginable tacos, and a go to to the Blanton Museum, one in all Austin’s most vital artwork establishments. Looking again on my forty-eight hours on the bottom, my expertise at Ostillo turned an vital thread connecting these totally different encounters: artwork, music, meals, sport, neighborhood, and the distinct traditions of Texas. Moving between the inspiration, the town, and the countryside, I started to see Austin as a spot the place totally different histories and methods of life continually meet and overlap. I left with the sensation that this sense of trade and reinvention is probably what makes the town so compelling.