Show dates: October 21-November 4

Opening reception: October 21, 7-10 p.m

Cloud Tree Gallery is excited to present a new exhibition featuring works from two distinguished artists, sculptor John Christensen and painter Jana Swec.

     John Christensen's sculptures for this show focus on figure.The forms are simple, reductive, abstract. He animates each form with shape-shifting uncertainty - with breath. Full of psychic subtext and made to help navigate our often cruel and befuddling world, many of his pieces try to direct our attention to the unseen - microbiota, rhizomes, spirit - or the unrecognized. He describes his sculpture as informed by the natural sciences, metaphysics, literature, and history.

     Jana Swec’s work since 2020 has also helped her move through difficult times and emotions. with a purpose to observe, create and heal. “Skies can be hope, ecstasy or immense sadness. Portraying fire has helped process fear, passion, and anger. Painting the underwater fills me with a sense of vast possibilities, stillness, and calm. The nebulous form that floats and glides through the scene, has come to represent a spirit of lightness, changeability, & luminescence.

Show dates: September 22-October 14

Opening reception: September 22, 7-10 p.m (featuring Three Spells, a 20 minute performance piece  by Robin Chotzinoff and Malena Pennycook at 8p.m.)

Artist talk: October 7, 2 p.m.                            

“Offering: A Balm in a World of Wounds comprises 17 oil paintings, large and small. I began this body of work with “Offering”, a diptych - a pair of canvases over which I painted a composition of intuitive, free form, almost symmetry. Three more large diptychs followed. In the beginning I was thinking about the rhythms, patterns and geometries of the plant world–how nothing in nature is perfectly symmetrical, but that there are consistent patterns. Then I began to think about humans in nature, as part of nature, not supreme in nature, and also about the imperfect symmetry of human bodies. I became especially concerned with female bodies. This work concerns broken patterns: generational pain and subsequent healing; death, rebirth and regeneration; sacrifice, ceremony, and also, vulnerability, with all its complications.”

Cloud Tree Summer Salon 

Cloud Tree Studios and Gallery 3411 E 5th St., Austin, TX 78702

Dates and times: Show dates: August 1-31

Opening reception: August 12, 7-10 p.m 

Cloud Tree is excited to share our space with the community for our Summer Salon Series. We divided our main exhibition gallery into 21 spaces and offered these spots to any interested artists, giving them a platform and space to share their art. We are happy to exhibit 21 local artists for all of August 2023, with limited curation and a focus on new and upcoming artists. It may be a bit warm here in Austin during the summer months, but we can still celebrate some amazing local art!  .

Selected Salon Artists Include:  Avery Connett, Christiane Barbknecht, Anna Lisa Leal, Julie Pelaez, Hallie Rae Ward, Rochelle Fainstein, Desiree Hullaster, Jonah Dillon, Deb Soromenho, April Garner, Payton Hornberger, Ashley Blazer, Meena Matai, Alyssa Galloway, Kai Lin, Emily Eisenberg, Freddy Kay Nichols, and Gregory Forse

If you are interested in being a part of our future Summer Salons please send us an email at brian@bdjcraftworks.com with Summer Salon Series in the subject. Please include 3 jpg’s of your work and a brief artist statement.

We are excited to provide a space for artists to show and sell their work, make connections and inspire the community.

Cloud Tree Summer Salon 

Cloud Tree Studios and Gallery 3411 E 5th St., Austin, TX 78702

Dates and times: Show dates: July 1-31

Opening reception: July 8, 7-10 p.m 

Cloud Tree is excited to share our space with the community for our Summer Salon Series. We divided our main exhibition gallery into 21 spaces and offered these spots to any interested artists, giving them a platform and space to share their art. We are happy to exhibit 21 local artists for all of July 2023, with limited curation and a focus on new and upcoming artists. It may be a bit warm here in Austin during the summer months, but we can still celebrate some amazing local art!  .

Selected Salon Artists Include:  Deb Soromenho, Annie Lynch, L.Morgan Kelley, Ashley Marie Richiez, April Garner, Denise Elliot Jones, Chris Miller, Lily Timberlake, J.C. Amorrortu, Payton Hornberger, Ashley Blazer, Forrest Aderholt, Steve Ecker, Meena Matai, Alyssa Galloway, Gabriella Blasquez, Kai Lin, Emily Eisenberg, Danielle Iemola-Devereux, Freddy Kay Nichols, and Rewon Shimray.

If you are interested in being a part of our future Summer Salons please send us an email at brian@bdjcraftworks.com with Summer Salon Series in the subject. Please include 3 jpg’s of your work and a brief artist statement.

We are excited to provide a space for artists to show and sell their work, make connections and inspire the community.

Cloud Tree Gallery is excited to announce our group photography show entitled Generation

Loss: Image Making in an Age of Over-Saturation.

In analog media development, the term “generation loss” refers to the modification

of content and reduction of detail when duplicates or multiple generations of copies are created.

"Generation Loss" takes the pulse of photography in an age where everyone is a photographer.

The show highlights the work of 12 innovative photographers, printmakers, painters, and collage

artists utilizing and interpreting photographic content as a primary source for their work.

Featuring the work of:

Leon Alesi

Molly Brocklehurst

Matt Rebholz

Sev Coursen

Tara Gorman

Dave McClinton

Carl Simmons

Shannon Purcell

Charles Henry

Michael O’Brien

Amy Scofield

Jorge Sanhueza Lyon

Longtime Austin painter and poet Philip Trussell brings his new work to Cloud Tree Gallery for his first show since 2019. For the last few years he has been accumulating hundreds of paintings in his Austin studio, and Cloud Tree is honored to bring this new work to the public.

Regularly cited by the Austin Chronicle in their top 10 arts lists, he has had paintings shown in the Austin Museum of Art, and has a multitude of collectors like his friend, filmmaker Richard Linklater who, at last count, owns around 40 of Trussell's paintings. 

“Amazingly talented and prolific … he generally only shows once a year — a self-imposed rule born of his distaste for art world politics. But please, please, whatever you do, try to catch his [show]. You'll find his works full of beauty, humor, and undeniable depth. If you meet him and you like each other, he'll invite you to his studio.” - Austin Chronicle

Also included will be a selection of works by Conner Strickland, a student of Philip’s.

Cloud Tree Gallery is bringing 11 of Austin’s best ceramics artists together for a celebration of all things ceramic. From the functional to the decorative, we are excited to showcase ceramic art in all its forms. Featuring work from:

Ryan McKerley

Mimi Bardagjy

Scott Proctor

Rebeca Milton

Alejandra Almuelle

Claudia Reeese

Mary F. Fischer 

Sarah German 

Stone Anderson 

Noelle Mercado

Eliana Bernard

Opening Reception: Friday, April 7, 7-10 p.m.

Contemporary artist Chanel Kreuzer brings her colorful, Texas inspired paintings to Cloud Tree Gallery for her first solo show, “Yo Soy la Tierra”. A multidisciplinary creator whose strength is working with acrylics and oils, Chanel focuses on painting vibrant, inviting landscapes in a unique style that draws inspiration from Matisse, Van Gogh, and David Hockney.

“Human creativity and art in the day to day may seem unimportant, until you need it, when you are faced with the unexpected challenges life can give you such as the loss of a loved one, heartbreak or even war. It can give you hope and meaning in a time when things may feel meaningless or unmanageable, it gives you life when the world can feel overwhelming or chaotic. Art helps you feel connected to something greater than yourself, Art is nature manifested in all of us. When an artist expresses themselves, it has a power you can feel. I am the land, and so are you as we are all connected, connected to nature.” Chanel is primarily self-educated as an artist, although she has trained at Atelier Dojo, and the Austin Fine Arts Academy. Her work has previously been exhibited at The University of Texas Mexican American Cultural Center, Mexic-Arte Museum, Katonah Museum Of New York, Contemporary Show of Houston, Western Art Gallery women of Texas. Chanel began painting in 2017, and is currently a full time artist that works out of her studio where she resides

Multidisciplinary artist Chad Rea brings his newest batch of work and his uplifting brand of activism he calls “Heartivism” to Cloud Tree Gallery. Drawing inspiration from current events, and utilizing techniques mastered as an advertising agency creative director, Chad allows his message to inform the medium. His paintings, sculptures, and digital works reflect the ever-changing times we live in and his materials, processes, and artistic styles evolve from one collection to the next. In 2020, only three years after he began to make art professionally, Chad was named “Top 10 Visual Artist” by The Austin Chronicle. With “HEARTIVISM”, he aims to arouse, delight, and reframe the human experience through the lens of radical acceptance, compassion, and self-love.

“This is a story about personal transformation. A shift in thinking and a new way of being. A realignment with my authentic self. Moving away from shared upset towards a shared joy. Seeing the world from a different point of view. Not as things that have happened to me but for me. Embracing positive change as an everyday practice.” Using familiar, iconic language often used in advertising, spirituality, and pop culture, HEARTIVISM illuminates the joys of being human and how we relate to one another, ourselves, and our environments. It’s an uplifting experience consisting of reworked, graffiti-tagged pop art paintings that invite us all to awaken to the brighter side of modern-day life. This is Chad’s first show with Cloud Tree Gallery.

www.chadrea.com @chadrea

Longtime Austin resident and interdisciplinary artist Heyd Fontenot returns to Texas after a lengthy artist’s residency on the Atlantic coast of Newfoundland, Canada, bringing with him a collection of freshly minted drawings and large scale paintings never before exhibited in Austin. In fact, Fontenot’s last solo exhibition in the city was in 2009.

      Fontenot’s stylized nude portraits are prized for their beautiful draftsmanship and unexpected humor and his artwork focusing on the human figure has been widely exhibited for more than 20 years. 

      Within the sex-saturated psyche of American culture, the artist combats both religious dogma and conservative hypocrisy to celebrate humanity in all of its lovely imperfection.These paintings and drawings present a political argument in favor of bodily autonomy as the artist lays claim to territory for queerness.

     With “I C U”, Fontenot continues to explore the human form in addition to experimenting with immersive installation.  While the artist was based in Austin from 1989-2011 he contributed to the local arts scene as a muralist, a designer for theater and film, an experimental filmmaker and music video director and of course as a visual artist.

“I C U” runs from February 10-26 with an opening from 7-10 on February 10 at Cloud Tree Gallery 3411 E. 5th St.

Heyd Fontenot is a Texas-based multidisciplinary artist and curator whose career has included roles in advertising, theater, television, film and digital media, as a graphic artist, set designer, art director and producer. He has held positions as Director of CentralTrak (2011-2016), UTDallas' international artists' residency program and exhibition space, and was recently appointed as Director of the San Antonio non-profit art space Sala Diaz where he was previously a Casa Chuck resident artist (2019). Widely known for his figurative paintings and drawings, Fontenot recruits his friends and artistic peers as models and has in this process created a comprehensive portrait of his community over the last two decades. Fontenot has been awarded the Dozier Travel Grant through the Dallas Museum of Art, the Mastermind Award from the Dallas Observer, been named as one of 100 Dallas Creatives, and while directing the gallery at CentralTrak it was named “best art space” by both DMagazine and the Dallas Observer and top ten galleries by Glasstire and Culturemap.  Fontenot has exhibited his experimental films at festivals nationally and internationally. His work has been featured in numerous exhibitions in Texas and the United States, including exhibitions at  Galveston Art Center (2021), Mountain View College, Dallas, TX (2014); Beige, Memphis, TN (2013); Allegheny College, Meadville, PA (2012); Inman Gallery, Houston, TX (2011); Rollins College, Winter Park, FL (2011) and the University of Maryland, College Park, FL (2010). Fontenot co-hosts a regular podcast with Erin Stafford called “Artists Talk Movies” available on Apple Podcasts.  As a working artist, Fontenot has participated in multiple residencies and is an active exhibiting artist represented by Conduit Gallery in Dallas.  This is Fontenot’s first solo exhibition with CloudTree.

New oil paintings by Jason Brooks and painted Japanese masks by Gordon McCloud.

Opening reception Friday, January 27 from 7-11 pm. On view from January 27-29.