Five contemporary art galleries in Austin, Texas, have teamed up to create an exclusive circle for local collectors that aims to promote the city’s art scene and create a stronger community for patrons, artists and gallerists.
Dubbed Friends of Galleries (Fog), the group was founded by the six proprietors of the Austin dealerships Martha’s Contemporary, Grayduck, Ivester Contemporary, Northern-Southern and McLennon Pen Co. Each gallery invited some of its top clients—with modest overlap—to become part of the programme, which allows members to participate in special events once a quarter.
“At first, we did not know if we had all been selling to the same group of collectors, but it quickly became clear that there were gaps here and there, that each gallery had their own unique clientele that they could contribute and share with the group,” the Fog gallerists said in a joint statement. “That also made us realise that a lot of these collectors might not yet know each other, which made us excited that our group could really gather likeminded individuals and promote art collecting.”
We did not know if we had all been selling to the same group of collectors, but it quickly became clear that there were gaps
The co-founders of Friends of Galleries
Planned events include gallery walkthroughs, a printmaking class and even a local birdwatching excursion. As new clients acquire art from any of the galleries, they become eligible for nomination to join Fog, the organisers say. There is even a tangible symbol of initiation, as all members receive matching purple Fog keychains, “almost like friendship bracelets”, according to the dealers.
Potential for growth
Although Austin has long been billed as the “Live Music Capital of the World” for the city’s high density of concert venues and abundance of performances taking place on any given night, the local infrastructure for fine art has historically paled in comparison to other major Texas cities, particularly Houston and Dallas, both of which boast not only larger populations but more galleries, museums and established collectors.
“We’re really looking to tap into Austin and get people excited about collecting art,” says Ricky Morales, who co-owns Martha’s Contemporary with his partner Meredith Williams. “A lot of our clients are from out of town, so we do want to double down on Austin and get these people here to start collecting more in Austin and feel like there’s really a scene here.”
The potential for expansion in the city’s cultural sector has never been greater. For 12 consecutive years ending in 2022, the population of Austin and the surrounding area grew more swiftly than any other region in the US, with a population of more than one million, per data from the US Census Bureau that year. The city is now the tenth largest in the country, with an estimated 974,447 residents.
The rapid growth has brought wealth with it. The number of Austin-based millionaires has more than doubled in the past decade, to 32,700, per an April 2024 report by Henley & Partners, a firm that connects high-net-worth individuals with foreign investment opportunities. This makes Austin the fastest-growing home to millionaires in the US. Many of the area’s newest and richest residents have been brought in by the recent tech boom, which has given Austin the nickname “Silicon Hills”.
Yet the jump in population, wealth and tech jobs has not necessarily created a new collector base—Morales, for instance, says Martha’s Contemporary has placed zero works of art with anyone who has relocated to Austin for a position in the tech sector.
“I’ve sold to people who were born here and got into tech, but nothing like transplants from New York who are moving here with these big salaries and are putting their money into the arts—I haven’t seen that personally,” he says.
A small but mighty collector base
Morales guesses there are around five or six major collectors based in Austin who purchase art from local galleries, as well as blue-chip art from all over the world. Another benefit of Fog, he says, is that these seasoned collectors can serve as mentors to newer ones.
“We’re not quite there with Dallas and Houston, but there are very serious collectors here, and we’ve also seen a lot of excitement around new collectors,” Morales says.
A beloved mural on South Congress Avenue in Austin, where the art ecosystem is “on the cusp of greatness”
John Woods/Alamy Stock Photo
One of Austin’s longtime gallery patrons is Chris Tomlinson, a Hearst Newspapers columnist who, along with his wife, Shalini Ramanathan, acquires work by local artists of his generation. Tomlinson and Ramanathan had purchased several pieces from Grayduck and Ivester Contemporary before Fog’s formation and were soon invited to join the group.
“It was cool to get to meet other Austin collectors and people that we did not know,” Tomlinson says. “There are just so many different kinds of art collectors with different interests. It definitely felt like community-building, because we knew we already knew all the gallerists. It was more about getting to know the other collectors.”
The Austin art scene is “eternally on the cusp of greatness”, according to Tomlinson. He names the Austin-born-and-based artist Deborah Roberts—whose thematically complex mixed-media collages of Black subjects have been shown at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, the Kunstmuseum Bonn and the Brooklyn Museum, among others—as “living proof” that local artists can garner international acclaim.
“I think people are beginning to recognise that we have a lot of talent here, that you don’t necessarily have to leave to have success,” Tomlinson says. “What’s missing is the collector class, to nurture them, to incubate the artists.”