Art Pick: Paul Meyer Opening at OLA Gallery

_{Office for Local Architecture, 201 E 5th St. #104
October 27, 6—9 p.m.}

Hattie Lindsley sees art in the world everywhere she goes. Usually it’s because she put it there. Lindsley works for the Office for Local Architecture in downtown Austin but her influence on the Austin architecture scene doesn’t stop at the drywall. She’s an artist and a curator herself, so it stands to reason that Lindsley’s own workspace would be a little bit remarkable in its own right.

The Office for Local Architecture—OLA—is a small collaborative of architects and designers that focus on sustainability. At the start of August the group opened OLA Gallery at the front of their offices, built out of reclaimed hardwood floors from an early 1900s Austin house and coated with a sustainable hardwood finish that really “brightened up the office,” Lindsley says.

Around the same time as the OLA Gallery opened, Lindsley came across the work of Paul Meyer, a Houston-based artist who also lays heavy emphasis on the materials that he uses, and re-uses, and re-re-uses. Meyer, who says he works between 2D and 3D realms, calls it relief painting.

“I was drawn to the texture of his work. It demands a closer look, but also has a calming effect,” Lindsley explains. “I like how the cement can feel like a desert landscape, an urban landscape, or an emotional landscape. Additionally, one of our gallery walls consists of historic Butler Brick which is a very prevalent material downtown. I think layering historic materials with Paul’s textural, but atmospheric work will create a subtle visual narrative of the history of building materials in Texas.”

The already blurry line between art and architecture is smudged into near oblivion at the OLA Gallery. Paul Meyer’s exhibit opens on October 27, with a reception from 6 to 9 p.m., and will be on display until mid-January.