\t\t\t\t\t\t\tMeredith Williams and her husband, Ricky Morales, established Martha\u2019s Gallery in 2018 as a DIY studio collective. Today, the Hyde Park-based art space has transitioned into a professional gallery with two locations, empowering local artists to achieve wider recognition.<\/p>\n
The history<\/p>\n
Noticing a need for affordable studio space for Austin\u2019s smaller artists, Williams and Morales opened the gallery\u2019s original location on East 7th Street and Webberville Road eight years ago.<\/p>\n
In September 2020, the original location closed, and the couple moved the space to Hyde Park, where it is still operating as a gallery today.<\/p>\n
“Moving into a more established, kind of serious-looking building made us take ourselves a bit more seriously,” Williams said. \u201c[We thought], \u2018Okay, we really want to do this … we want to really represent the artists well and take it outside of Austin.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
In 2022, Williams left her teaching job to run the gallery full-time. Today, Martha\u2019s operates out of two locations, including a newer space inside Westside Market, a co-op retailer on West 6th Street.<\/p>\n
The inspiration<\/p>\n
When people think of Austin, they usually think of live music and barbecue, Williams said. Her vision for her hometown includes a broader definition of art\u2014a visual art scene that attracts tourists akin to galleries in New York or Los Angeles.<\/p>\n
\u201cRicky and I, both being from here, just want to leave a mark on the city that to us is meaningful and is from the heart,\u201d Williams said.<\/p>\n
The impact<\/p>\n
One of the couple\u2019s biggest goals is to expose Austin artists to galleries across the country, Williams said. This includes empowering them to pursue art full-time by building their collector base.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat leads to shows with galleries in other places and allows them to spread their wings in ways to reach their own goals as artists,\u201d Williams said.<\/p>\n
Martha\u2019s Gallery recently participated in The Armory Show<\/a> in New York City, an art fair that is over a century old. Representing Austin-based artist RF Alvarez<\/a>, the gallery sold out their booth and was also recognized as having one of the best booths at the fair, Williams said<\/p>\n “Getting recognition outside of Austin from a really serious established fair like The Armory really meant a lot to us,” Williams said. \u201cThose kind of moments really motivate you to [think], \u2018Okay we can do this.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n What\u2019s next<\/p>\n Martha\u2019s Gallery is co-hosting the upcoming “Friends Fair” from May 7-9. Taking over a floor of the Lauren Hotel alongside local galleries like Northern Southern, Ivester Contemporary, and McLennon Pen Co., the boutique fair will feature 16 galleries in an intimate setting designed to foster genuine connection without the overwhelming scale of massive conventions, Williams said.<\/p>\n “><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Meredith Williams and her husband, Ricky Morales, established Martha\u2019s Gallery in 2018 as a DIY studio collective. Today,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":210363,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[39653,132,82428,134,133,59455,51615,82426,82427],"class_list":["post-210362","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-austin","tag-art-gallery","tag-austin","tag-austin-art-scene","tag-austin-headlines","tag-austin-news","tag-hyde-park","tag-local-artists","tag-marthas-gallery","tag-westside-market"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/210362","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=210362"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/210362\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/210363"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=210362"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=210362"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=210362"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}