The best art galleries in Austin.

Wally Workman Gallery

The oldest commercial gallery on this page that publishes a founding year. Established in 1980 and housed in a 120-year-old historic house with two stories of exhibition space, Wally Workman says it specializes in emerging and collected talent, and that its long-standing relationships have advanced local artists onto the national stage for decades. More than fifty artists are currently represented, including the contemporary work of Sarah Ferguson, Joyce Howell, and Will Klemm and the figurative painting of Patrick Puckett and America Martin. The current show comes with a preview, an artist talk, and an exhibition video, which is more than most rooms this size publish. It is the reference gallery for Austin painting.

Sylvia Benitez, The Way Back, on view September 12 through October 4, 2026, with an opening reception on September 12 from 6 to 8 pm. Parking in the lot behind the gallery, reached from the alley off Blanco and Harthan; unrestricted street parking on Blanco.

Davis Gallery & Framing

The gallery that treats framing as half the craft. Davis Gallery & Framing runs a current, well-documented exhibition program out of 837 West 12th Street, and publishes more than forty years of experience in custom picture framing, with consultations taken by appointment. The autumn show is a solo exhibition of new mixed-media work by Amy Banner Updegrove, a native Texan who came to the practice from media, design, and fashion, and it arrives with a dated opening reception plus a separate artist talk three weeks later. That shape, a real opening and then a return visit for the talk, is what a serious gallery calendar looks like. The gallery also gives ten percent of the proceeds of many shows to a named local charity, and publishes which one, show by show.

837 West 12th Street. Passing Beauty on view September 10 through October 10, 2026; opening reception September 10 from 6 to 9 pm; artist talk October 3 at 1:30 pm inside a 1 to 3 pm reception. Framing consultations by appointment, and the gallery closes at 5 pm on Tuesdays for a team meeting.

Women & Their Work

The nonprofit institution, in its 48th year. Women & Their Work calls itself a nonprofit arts organization that serves as a catalyst for contemporary art created by women living and working in Texas and beyond, and the program is the whole point: a solo exhibition series, performances, public programs, an artist registry, education resources, and an online archive covering all 48 years. Membership funds it, and every level includes invitations to all events and gallery openings. For a reader who wants an Austin exhibition space with a mission and a five-decade record behind it, this is the one to start with.

1311 East Cesar Chavez Street. Tuesday through Friday 10 am to 6 pm, Saturday noon to 6 pm. The gallery is between shows and closed September 4 through 16, 2026; the Red Dot Art Spree fundraiser is September 17, and the next solo exhibition, Lisa Woods, runs October 10 through November 22.

La Peña

The gallery on Congress Avenue, founded in 1981 by the sisters Lidia and Cynthia Pérez, who took the South American custom of the peña, a community gathering where local artisans share art, music, poetry, performances, and social commentary, and built a gallery around it. Its stated mission is to support artistic development, give exposure to emerging local visual artists, musicians, and poets, and offer Austin the full spectrum of traditional and contemporary Latino art. The exhibition record on its site is dense and specific: Día de los Muertos shows, the Artemis series, International Women’s Day exhibitions, documentary photography by Alan Pogue, and a current show of forty photographs of Cuba by three photographers. It keeps weekday business hours rather than gallery hours, which makes it the easiest downtown gallery to walk into on a lunch break.

227 Congress Avenue. Monday through Friday 8 am to 5 pm, Saturday 8 am to 3 pm, closed Sunday. Cuba: Un Colectivo, Tres Miradas on view September 3 through October 3, 2026. Admission is always free; membership and donations support the program.

grayDUCK Gallery

The East Side gallery in a hundred-year-old house. grayDUCK was founded in 2010 in South Austin and moved to East Austin in 2014, into a refurbished house it describes as a hybrid of new and old, clean lines and comfortable wood, where monthly shows draw from a broad range of local and national artists and the room doubles for poetry readings, film, music, and performance. The current calendar is the tell: a solo exhibition with a scheduled mid-run performance and a closing gallery wake, all three dates published in advance. It also runs a podcast and a video series, which few galleries this size bother to do.

2213 East Cesar Chavez Street. Saturday and Sunday 1 to 5 pm or by appointment; parking behind the building via the alley off Mildred. Yuliya Lanina, Dress Rehearsal, on view August 29 through September 26, 2026, with a performance September 13 from 2 to 3 pm and a closing gallery wake September 26 from 5 to 8 pm.

Flatbed Press

The print publisher with a gallery attached, and the place on this page where a reader can watch the work being made. Flatbed Center for Contemporary Printmaking says it is dedicated to creating and promoting the art and craft of the original print, and its director, Katherine Brimberry, writes that Flatbed was established in 1989 to help artists create etchings, woodcuts, lithographs, and monotypes. It runs two studios, the professional collaborative shop Flatbed Press and a separate open community studio called Community Press, and the gallery holds the archived print inventory and exhibits artists working in printmaking media. Around that sit a published fall 2026 class roster, open-studio access, private tutorials, residencies, and the Kollwitz Collectors’ Circle. For a reader who wants to understand how a print comes to exist before buying one, there is no substitute.

In the Flatbed Press team’s words: “We have a deep inventory of original etchings, woodcut, lithographs and monoprints by artists working in many different styles at prices that range upwards from $500. We can help you find work that you love and get it framed in an archival and economic way.”

3701 Drossett Drive, Suite 190. Tuesday through Friday 10 am to 5 pm, Saturday noon to 5 pm, Monday by appointment only, closed Sunday. The fall 2026 class roster is published on the site.

West Chelsea Contemporary

The secondary-market room. West Chelsea Contemporary situates its represented emerging and mid-career artists alongside a curated selection of work by artists influential to Pop, Street, Graffiti, and post-graffiti, and says the juxtaposition is the point: it raises each artist’s exposure and draws connections between their work. Exhibitions run year-round, the programming is free and open to the public during business hours, and there are satellite displays at Sophie’s Gasthaus and One Oak, a frame shop, a published team page, and private appointments bookable online. It is the room in Austin where a collector shopping the secondary market and a first-time buyer working under ten thousand dollars are looking at the same walls, and the site keeps a standing section of artworks in that lower band.

1009 West 6th Street, Suite 120. Monday through Saturday 10 am to 6 pm, Sunday noon to 6 pm. No tickets: the gallery states its exhibitions and programs are free during normal business hours. Private appointments bookable through the site.

Austin Art Garage

The gallery built for a first purchase. Established in 2007 to expose talented emerging artists and to offer art enthusiasts from all socio-economic backgrounds a way to invest in art made in their own community, Austin Art Garage sells one hundred percent local work, originals and fine art prints, with the price shown on every piece and no sales pressure. Its own pitch is the rare chance to acquire locally made art early in an artist’s career while it is still attainable, and the site says it is updated very frequently, with new arrivals and a featured artist. Originals on the front page recently ran from three hundred dollars to a little over two thousand. Two working artists founded it and still run it, alongside a gallery director and a coordinator. It is the antidote to the idea that buying art in Austin requires a consultant.

2200 South Lamar Boulevard, Suite J. Tuesday through Friday noon to 6 pm, Saturday and Sunday noon to 5 pm, closed Monday. Buy online or collect at the gallery; artist submissions accepted through the site.

Ao5 Gallery

The Arboretum gallery and frame shop, open since 1998. Ao5 pairs a contemporary gallery, with a featured roster that runs from Nicole Charbonnet’s layered, palimpsest-like abstractions to Hugh Syme’s album-cover art for Rush and the Art of Dr. Seuss collection, with a custom framing operation offering archival framing and thousands of options. It keeps retail hours seven days a week, sells online, rents the room for private events, holds multiple artist receptions and events each month, and runs its own talk series. It is one of two galleries on this page inside the Arboretum, and the framing side means a piece can leave ready to hang.

10000 Research Boulevard, Suite 118, in the Arboretum. Monday through Saturday 10 am to 6 pm, Sunday noon to 5 pm. Framing design appointments bookable; gift cards and an online shop. Artist submissions by email with at least five images.

Ivester Contemporary

The East Side gallery with an advisory practice. Ivester Contemporary represents emerging and mid-career artists working in painting, sculpture, fiber, photography, and installation, and describes its specialty as placing museum-quality contemporary artwork with collectors, interior designers, architects, and corporate collections, which is the part of the gallery business most Austin rooms leave to out-of-town firms. The autumn calendar is two concurrent solo exhibitions rather than a group show, and the site keeps a news feed of artist activity between them.

Christine Garvey’s Parlour Tricks and Regina Durante Jestrow’s Strips, Stripes, Pieces, Parts both on view September 11 through October 17, 2026. Inquiries and advisory requests through the site.

Co-Lab Projects

The nonprofit with the strangest room in town. Co-Lab Projects programs a culvert gallery, a literal concrete culvert on Glissman Road, with curated projects rather than a represented-artist roster, and the next one is an immersive installation by Isadora Jackson curated by Leslie Moody Castro, developed through residencies in Mexico City and Latvia and opening in mid-September with a members’ preview and a public reception. It is supported by members, individual donors, and arts grants including the Texas Commission on the Arts, the openings are events, and the site publishes a digital program and a press archive alongside current, upcoming, and past shows. It is where Austin’s more experimental exhibitions get made on purpose.

5419 Glissman Road. On view Saturdays noon to 6 pm during exhibitions. Within my Maze of Memory runs September 12 through October 24, 2026, with a members’ preview at 6 pm and a public reception at 7 pm on opening night. Membership through the site.

ICOSA

The artist-run cooperative, in its own words: an artist-run nonprofit cooperative gallery, which means the members who show there also run the place. The program reflects it: a current two-artist exhibition with a moderated artist talk and a closing reception, an annual members’ show, a gift shop, and a history of projects running from a film series to an Art Prom. The gallery opens Fridays and Saturdays in the Springdale Road complex that anchors the East Side’s working-studio scene, and it publishes its member, alumni, and intern rosters, so a reader can see exactly whose cooperative it is.

916 Springdale Road, Building 2, Suite 102. Fridays and Saturdays noon to 6 pm. Gestures of Care by Chantal Lesley and Ana Treviño runs through September 12, 2026, with an open canopy and closing reception September 11 from 7 to 10 pm.

Northern-Southern

The downtown gallery that publishes its own pause. Northern-Southern says it is close to completing its thirteenth year and has hosted shows continuously since moving into the downtown space in 2021, with an editions program and an artist-run club alongside the exhibitions. It describes its work as nurturing and championing new expression in art, design, and culture in Austin, and it is a member of the New Art Dealers Alliance and the Friends of Galleries. As of this page’s research it has announced a hiatus for August and September 2026, to rest, reflect, and work on behind-the-scenes reorganization, and says it will reopen in mid-October, beginning with a presentation at Untitled Art Houston. A gallery that publishes its own pause, with a date and a plan, is doing something most do not, and it stays on this list on those terms.

East 5th Street, halfway between Brazos and San Jacinto; look for the Northern-Southern sign and the blue door with art by Kel Brown, set in from the sidewalk. Closed for August and September 2026 by the gallery’s own announcement, reopening in mid-October. Reach out through the site meanwhile.

Martha’s

The early-career gallery north of campus. Martha’s says it specializes in working with early-career artists, presenting solo and group exhibitions spanning all media, and that it is committed to fostering an inclusive and diverse ecosystem for artists and collaborators, working closely with local and regional artists while also bringing in artists from elsewhere in the country. Ricky Morales and Meredith Williams founded it in 2020 and still own and run it, one as director and one as operations manager. It keeps a press page and a fairs page, which is how a small gallery turns a local career into a wider one, and the program is legible from the site in a way many young galleries never manage.

4115 Guadalupe Street in Hyde Park. Friday and Saturday noon to 6 pm and by appointment. Hayley Labrum on view September 11 through October 3, 2026.

Art For The People Gallery

The community gallery that moved east. Art For The People says it has showcased Texas artists for over ten years, and its founder and curator, Deanna Serra, writes that it was born from a simple dream, a space where artists feel truly seen, supported, and encouraged, championing new and emerging artists alongside established voices. The program runs on themed group exhibitions, the current one examining our evolving relationship with space and the world we inhabit, plus an open call that keeps new names coming through the door. The shop carries originals, prints, ceramics, jewelry, textiles, glassware, and other artisanal goods, the room can be booked for events, and the gallery will deliver and install a purchase locally for a quote. Check the address before you go: the Springdale Road room is a new location.

In Lindsey Kennedy’s words: “Art For The People Gallery strives to reflect the breadth of our creative community by uplifting local artists”

1023 Springdale Road, Suite 2A. Tuesday through Saturday 10 am to 7 pm, Sunday 10 am to 5 pm, closed Monday. Current group exhibition on view; open call and event hosting through the site.

Link & Pin

The East Side gallery with an exhibition archive going back to 2014. Link & Pin describes itself as a progressive artist-influenced space, offering artists not only a place to show their work but a community they can be part of and have an impact on, with a stated ultimate plan of having artists help select future artists. The name is the old-fashioned way of hitching rail cars together, chosen for the building’s proximity to a railroad track and for the way it links artists to one another. The site lists every show by name back to 2014: PrintAustin invitationals, the rotating Summer Exposure sessions that run six deep in 2026, a memorial exhibition, Artistas Sin Fronteras, and the Contemporary Print. It takes proposals through the site, which makes it one of the more open doors in town for an artist without representation.

2235 East 6th Street, Suite 102. Friday, Saturday, and Sunday 1 to 5 pm and by appointment. Exhibition proposals accepted through the site.

Modern Rocks Gallery

The specialist: Austin’s independent rock and roll photography gallery since 2014, by its own description, dedicated to rare and iconic photography and to curated shows from widely recognized photographers and artists. Its owner, Steven Walker, is a former member of Modern English, and the inventory is organized three ways, by photographer, by musician, and by graphic artist. Collections run from the Austin PBS Austin City Limits poster archive and a fifty-print ACL heritage collection curated from Scott Newton’s archive to Allan Grant’s last photographs of Marilyn Monroe and a Miles Davis series. Prints arrive hand-signed, numbered, and with a certificate of authenticity, and the gallery publishes both a buyer’s guide and an art advisory service. In a music city, it is the gallery that takes the music seriously as pictures.

916 Springdale Road, Building 3, Suite 103. Prints and collections sold online and in the gallery; buyer’s guide and art advisory published on the site.

Unchained.Art Contemporary Gallery

The downtown gallery with an international roster and a stated dislike of intimidation. Unchained.Art says it bridges international perspectives with local voices across photography, sculpture, painting, and tech art, and its about page frames the mission as breaking down traditional barriers to build a more direct and meaningful connection between artists and the people who live with their work: transparent, personal, and intentionally accessible. Its own published milestones run from a founding in Zurich in 2020, to a move to Austin in June 2022, to a first Austin room in East Austin in March 2023, to the current downtown space in a 1926 Beaux-Arts building in the historic district, opened in October 2025. It offers a 3D virtual tour, personalized art consulting with appointments or home viewings, and shipping.

In Christina Hiltscher’s words: “Unchained. Art Contemporary Gallery brings international and local artists into the same room and makes that conversation visible. We represent artists from across the world alongside Austin voices - painting, sculpture, photography, and tech-driven work that holds its own anywhere. Created to be accessible and genuine, because the relationship between a person and a work of art is personal.”

Shapeshifting, a solo exhibition by Austin painter Via Boley, on view September 10 through November 7, 2026, with an opening reception September 10 from 5 to 8 pm. A monthly Austin Artist of the Month program runs alongside it, with Marcus Delzell first, on view through October 3. Consultations and home viewings by appointment; shipping available.

Owner: Christina Hiltscher

ArtUs Co

The artist collective in a shopping center. ArtUs Co says it is run by a collective of resident artists who handle everything from putting together shows to doing the dishes, and the operation combines a gallery, working studios, and a gift shop of goods from artists and makers in the Arboretum. It is funded in part by the Texas Commission on the Arts, takes studio applications, rents the space for private events, and runs a standing calendar of workshops and happenings. The programming is themed and recurring: the fourth annual Realms of Fungi, with work by more than forty artists interpreting mushrooms, mycelium, and the networks between them, is on view into late September. It is the north side’s answer to the East Side co-ops, and it sits beside a sushi restaurant and an ice cream counter, across from the Arboretum’s big chess board.

In Juan Villegas’s words: “We are Austin’s visionary art gallery & collective, a home for spiritual, psychedelic, surreal, and experimental art, where studios, exhibitions, and community come together under one roof.”

10000 Research Boulevard, Suite 141, in the Arboretum. Gift shop and gallery Thursday through Sunday noon to 6 pm. Realms of Fungi on view August 22 through September 26, 2026.