Mission
MASS exists as a volunteer-run, democratic collective built by artists, educators, and arts administrators dedicated to creating a site for creative and social action in collaboration with artists and organizations from and for the LGBTQIA+ community. We do this by hosting bi-monthly art exhibitions and events centering LGBTQIA+ artists and community, supporting local artists with affordable studio space and residency opportunities in which to make new work, and providing space for BIPOC and LGBTQIA+ organizations to host events and gatherings.
History
Founded in 2006, MASS is a collectively run nonprofit gallery and project space based in Austin, Texas. Consisting of a cast culled from Austin’s rich community of artists, writers, musicians and educators, MASS members jointly contribute to the daily operations and strategic planning of exhibitions, programming and events.
From 2006 to 2010 MASS existed as part of the Blue Theater complex, behind what is now Big Medium at Canopy and adjacent to the current Museum of Human Achievement. During this period, MASS presented more than forty exhibitions and indescribable events, establishing its reputation as an art space with a true sense of curiosity, always amenable to the risk of providing its space and energy in support of the unknown. MASS’s stint at the Blue Theater was characterized by large scale installations that dramatically transformed the space, notably House Painting by Erin Curtis, Stalemate of the Boozefox, and Panopticon by Dustin Kilgore. MASS also became an associated venue and partner with Austin art events like Fusebox, EAST and The Texas Biennial.
Between 2010 and 2013, MASS utilized a two year nomadic period to create public art projects and pop-up exhibitions around town. MASS teamed up with CoLab to mount 2 exhibitions: Monolith Pass by Anthony Garza and Vortexas Brainsaw Massacre, a haunted house/installation staged by the MASS staff. We also did the Totally Wreckshow at Big Medium and a group show, Methods of Entanglement at the UT ACES building.
In November 2013, MASS established itself in its new location within the 507 Calles Street complex, consisting of a 1,500-square foot gallery space, five large work studios and a unique retail space. After 5 years at Calles St MASS has relocated into a standalone structure at 705 Gunter St.
MASS is…
Leadership Team
Beth Schindler (she/her) is an artist, producer and curator living and working in Austin, TX. Working in textiles, video, photography and found materials, creating ephemeral installations and performance. She has shown her work in Austin, Los Angeles, New Orleans, Marfa, D.C. and San Francisco.
Former founding member of Homo Photo Club, QueerBomb and OUTsider Festival. She is the new President of MASS Gallery and is focused on turning it into the gayest community art space possible. Crafting space for Dykes and queers is my life's work and love language. With events like Dyke Bar, Jonathan’s, Cool Adult Rec Center Lock-In, Lesbian Wedding, Lesbian Touch-Dykes You Should Know, The Austin Dyke March and Free & Queer Cinema.
bethcita.tumblr.com
Erin Gentry (she/they) was born in Mexico City and grew up in the United States, and has been living and working in Austin since the late 1990s. Erin has extensive professional experience in youthwork, bilingual education, and program design and project management, and has been involved in the creation and development of several small non-profit organizations, where she specialized in strategic planning, organizational development, and meeting facilitation. Her nationally recognized work for Arthouse at the Jones Center’s youth education programs impacted the lives of hundreds of young artists and educators. Erin holds a bachelor’s degree in Liberal Studies from St. Edward’s University, and a master’s degree in American Culture Studies from Bowling Green State University, where she wrote about intersections of gender, contemporary art, and urban space. She received a Certificate in Nonprofit Management and Leadership from ACC in 2018. She has been an active member at MASS Gallery since 2011, and has held various leadership roles there. She is also a vinyl DJ with Chulita Vinyl Club and Double Trouble.
Hannah Spector (she/her) is an interdisciplinary visual artist and poet working out of Austin, Texas. Spector thinks of language as a solid object—a concrete and spatial expression that can overturn limiting perceptions of the everyday. She has exhibited work at The Visual Arts Center, Transformer Gallery (DC), The Katzen Arts Center (DC), The Corcoran (DC), Pyramid Atlantic (DC), The San Antonio Museum of Art, and Blue Star Contemporary. Spector’s short films have won prizes at The DUMBO Film Festival and Berlin Shorts Festival. She received her MFA from UT Austin and currently holds a Lecturer position at Texas State University. Spector also works as a community printmaking instructor at Flatbed Press.
hannahspector.com
Mass Members
Drew Liverman (he/him) is an artist and designer living in Austin, Texas. Drew received his B.F.A. in painting and printmaking from Virginia Commonwealth University in 2002. Drew’s drawing, painting, and installation work has been featured in BOMB Magazine and shown in The Centre for Contemporary Arts Glasgow, Scotland; Atelier als Supermedium Artists Space for Contemporary Art Den Haag/Rijswijk, The Netherlands; and the Lawndale Art Center in Houston, Texas. In addition to his personal work, Drew contributes to the Austin, Texas based art collective, Boozefox and has been an active MASS member since 2007.
drewliverman.org
Andrea Calo (she/her) is a freelance architectural and interiors photographer living in Austin, TX. She grew up on the edge of urban sprawl in Phoenix, Arizona, and received her BFA in Photography from the Herberger Institute of Design and the Arts at Arizona State University in 2009. She relocated to Austin in 2012, and in 2014 founded Lower Left, a garage gallery space. With a mission to promote collaboration between local artists, Lower Left housed exhibitions in a South Austin garage, and later joined the arts and education non-profit, Studium. Now on hiatus, Lower Left inspired Andrea to join MASS Gallery in 2017, in an effort to continue facilitating art and collaboration as an active member of the community in Austin.
andreacalo.com
Anahita (Ani) Bradberry (she/her) is a plasma sculptor based in Austin, TX. She has been featured in Lichtkunstfest (Berlin, DE), exhibitions at Dominique Gallery (LA), Two Six Eight Bowery (NYC), the Washington Project for the Arts (DC), Transformer (DC), VisArts (VA), the Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center (DC), George Washington University's Gallery 102 (DC) and CICA — the Czong Institute for Contemporary Art (South Korea). Ani recently completed two permanent installations in NYC: one in a hidden bar in the downtown 50th st 1 train subway station and the other at 55 Suffolk St. She earned an MA in Art History in 2015 on Japanese Modern and Contemporary Art from American University (Washington, DC), conducting primary research in Tokyo with the help of a Mellon Grant and lecturing on her research at the Maryland Institute College of Art in 2016. She later assisted in the archival projects at the Smithsonian National Museum of Asian Art. During her time in DC, she co-founded DIRT: an accessible online platform for unconventional art criticism and intimate artist interviews. After DC, she spent several years in NYC to work in the architectural field and currently works as an archival consultant for design firms.
anibradberry.com
Ariel Wood (they/them) (b. 1994, Pasadena, CA) is a Texas-based artist by way of California and Wisconsin. They received a BFA in printmaking and drawing from The University of Wisconsin, Madison 2016, a Post-Baccalaureate Certificate from Santa Reparata International School Of Art, in Florence 2016, and their MFA in Sculpture from The University of Texas at Austin 2022, where they were the recipient of the Lomis Slaughter, Jr. Endowment Scholarship In Sculpture and the Continuing College Fellowship. Ariel is a sculpture artist interested in the way plumbing and drainage can elicit notions of interconnectedness, liminality, and queerness. Wood picks and parses out those aspects of the larger system that appear strange, silly, or sentimental. They have exhibited their work nationally and internationally in Wisconsin, Illinois, Texas, New York, and Italy.
ariel-wood-art.com
Erin Cooper (she/her) lives and works outside of Austin in Lockhart, Texas. Her background ranges from fundraising, volunteer management and event planning, to project management. A graduate of Fashion Merchandising at Texas State, Erin eventually made her way to the Wildflower School of Botanical Medicine clinical herbalism program, while also participating in various local community organizations over the years. She enjoys working behind the scenes to make magic happen.
Grayson Hunt (he/him) is a fiber artist and community organizer who specializes in LGBTQIA+ and disability diversity initiatives. He earned his Ph.D. in Philosophy from the New School for Social Research. As the Director of Equity Outreach at The University of Texas at Austin, he develops, facilitates, and assesses diversity workshops for faculty. As the former Associate Director of LGBTQ Studies at UT Austin, he created and hosted the Transgender Feminisms Reading Group. He has helped create UT's first-ever Disabled Faculty Equity Council, and working with other staff, faculty, and students at UT, he helped create Texas's first University Disability Cultural Center.
Jules Buck Jones (he/him) creates art inspired by the mechanics and mysteries of the natural world. His body of work ranges from dense, organic watercolors and drawings, to large-scale performances employing costumes and puppetry. He is a founding member of the collective, non-profit, MASS Gallery and the art / science collective Animal Facts Club, both located in Austin TX. Jules has been accepted and invited to art residencies in Maine, New York, Tennessee, Vermont, the Florida Everglades and Barcelona. He shows extensively throughout TX and currently teaches painting and drawing at TX State University in San Marcos.
julesbuckjones.com
Lauren Winchell Bechelli (she/her) (B. 1988, San Diego, California) is a painter and installation artist working in Austin, TX. She received an MFA from the University of Texas, Austin (2020) and a BA from the University of California, Davis (2010). She is the recipient of a 9 month Fulbright-Nehru Research Fellowship Award in Vadodara, India where she collaborated with the department of Sanskrit, Pali, and Prakrit at MSU Baroda and Carbon Craft of Hubli. Lauren's work fixates on importance of understanding as freedom maker. She focuses on joy, play, and discovery in combination with research, politics, and sexuality to create work that relates to life as we experience it instead of as proclamation. Much of her work is made from materials and subjects scavenged from other artists. She attended the Penland School of Craft residency, Chautauqua residency, and the Priyasri residency in Vadodara, India and has exhibited at Casa De Los Tres Mundos, Granada, Nicaragua; Chester Art Center, Chester, England; Visual Arts Center, Austin; Sense Gallery, Washington D.C.; Jonathan Hopson Gallery, Houston; Good Luck Have Fun Gallery, Austin; Space Studios, Vadodara, India.
laurenwinchellbechelli.com
Michelle Devereux (she/her) is an artist born and raised in Dallas, Texas and has been living and working in Austin since 2005. She received her Bachelor of Arts Degree from Bard College in 2004. She currently works at an Austin-based chainstitch company known as Fort Lonesome. Her performances, installations, videos, and drawings have been shown locally at Monofonus Press, Mass Gallery, Arthouse at the Jones Center, Co-Lab, Domy Books, Okay Mountain, El Cosmico, and Museum of Human Achievement. Other notable shows include a two person show with Matt Furie at New Image Art Gallery in Los Angeles, in addition to a pizza themed group show at Marlborough Gallery in Chelsea. Her recent body of work centers mostly on the media of colored pencil drawings mixed airbrush.
michelledevereux.com
Vinchen (he/him) was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and raised in Columbus, Ohio. Vinchen currently lives and works in Austin, Texas. Primarily working in sculpture and installation, he finds excitement in the immediacy of manipulating common throwaway materials. Using ad hoc processes to transform impoverished natural and synthetic materials into malformed, asymmetric shapes, he explores recurring interests in labor, class, and cultural identity. Vinchen has exhibited nationally and earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts from The Ohio State University and a Master of Fine Arts from the University of Texas at Austin where he is a lecturer in the sculpture department.
MASS is located at 705 Gunter St. Austin, TX 78702
Support MASS
Let your generous nature be known by making a fully tax-deductible direct donation to MASS Gallery today! Your generosity places you among a league of visionary donors, aids in the creation of new artwork — experimental and progressive — and contributes to an exuberant line-up of film screenings, musical performances, opening receptions, and community outreach activities. Your gift not only promotes contemporary arts programming not seen elsewhere in Austin, but furthers the creation of a culturally-rich community for all.