Compared to cities like Houston and Dallas, which have mature art audiences—collectors, donors, patrons of the arts, and nationally recognized museums—Austin has been slow to achieve this status. Its museums are run by the University of Texas at Austin: Blanton and Harry Ransom Center. The independent modern downtown art space The Contemporary Austin at the Jones Center is the size of a gallery rather than a proper museum.
Austin Gallery Background
While galleries have come and gone with spotty consistency since Covid, there are a few professional galleries; over the past five years, Austin has seen many new art galleries despite a challenging environment for the arts. Artists cannot afford to live and work in the city; very few affordable lofts, warehouses, or spaces are conducive to creating art, and the City Council donates less and less to art each year.
Of the myriad of galleries that have weathered the storms, few are vocal politically; Art Galleries at Black Studies (AGBS) at UT, Women & Their Work, and Big Medium are a few that come to mind. Throughout the ages, art has been a voice for the social zeitgeist, but for the most part, that hasn’t been the case in Austin; surprisingly, perhaps it is due to the authoritarianism embodied in the state’s legislative body or hardcore right-wing religious and cult groups that permeate the landscape. And then came Dorf!
DORF Gallery
(dorf; German for village)
Gallerists and partners Sara Vanderbeek, Co-Founder, Executive Director, and Curator, and Eric Manche, Founder and Creative Director, met in Japan. At the time, Sara worked at Christie’s in New York and was invited to Japan as a visiting scholar. Eric went as a student, and the two became best friends. On that trip, they kept seeing a Swiss coffee shop named Dorf in Kyoto. Sara took a photo of the logo and liked the word “it was silly and had many meanings.”
Fast-forward. They opened a gallery on the East Side and started their love relationship in Austin. Sara is a portrait painter and a fine artist who does fabric paintings of identity art as a middle-aged woman using themes such as trauma and mental illness. At the same time, Eric is a filmmaker and graphic artist. Sara was a founding member of ICOSA, and Eric created their brand identity.
Vanderbeek and Manche are seasoned figures in the art world, nationally, internationally, and locally, known for blending community-oriented programs with forward-thinking exhibitions. They view the new gallery as a testament to the city’s recognition of art’s role as an inspiring model for how the arts can thrive amidst Austin’s rapid urban development, where developers have pushed artists of all stripes out of town but also as a forum to stand up against discriminating state-wide policies that inflict harm and disenfranchise a large segment of the population: women, all other minorities from Latino/Latina to LGBTQIA, and the incarcerated to name a few.
DORF became a non-profit in 2021. Its mission is to continue expanding upon a village of artists, advocates, and innovators whose values of open expression in all forms without fear or favor guide its programming. This includes exhibitions that tackle social justice, amplify marginalized voices, and foster meaningful dialogues—stuff that is usually hush-hush.
Nestled in the new Zilker Point Development at 218 South Lamar, a unique public-private partnership made this move possible. Through an innovative city ordinance, DORF secured a rent-free, long-term lease protected for future arts nonprofits—a game-changer in a city where rising real estate costs have forced numerous independent art spaces to shutter.
The show “Soft Opening” will run through January 11 and features national and local artists. It offers an intriguing exploration of softness across forms, blending mixed media, installation, and sculpture to highlight the gallery’s raw, minimalist space. Stripped of conventional gallery constraints—no walls or furniture—the artworks echo DORF’s ethos of openness and organic growth.
The exhibit is timely. It comes precisely when our nation needs a ‘soft divine feminine’ approach to one another. Nitashia Johnson, a Dallas resident invites us to witness “Joy,” an inspiring video about Derrick Johnson, a Black man who demystifies the incontrovertibly wrong and incomprehensible negative associations made of Black men – in general, now and historically. The video is a testament to the positive, loving ‘softness’ of the human spirit.
DORF is strategically positioned in an emerging cultural district, joining local art powerhouses like the Zach Theatre and Dougherty Arts Center. The gallery’s new 1,062-square-foot space, crafted by renowned Austin architects Runa Workshop, includes a rooftop garden, outdoor plaza, and a commissioned sculpture by Jessica Bell, establishing a space designed for creativity and community engagement.
“When you’re younger, you often want to be someone else or somewhere else, and as you get older, you embrace who you are, love who and where you are, since you’ve done so much work to get to where you are that it defines you,” says Eric.
We are blessed to have Sara and Eric right here where we are!
Featured artists in this new show (all pieces were created in 2024) include Eepi Chaad www.esquaredpidesign.com , Michael Anthony Garcia www.mrmichaelme.com , Nitashia Johnson www.nitashiajohnson.com , Bárbara Miñarro www.barbaraminarro.art , Natalia Nakazawa www.natalianakazawa.com , Rebeca Proctor www.nomceramics.com , Libby Rosen @_libbyrosen__, and James Viscardi www.jamesviscardi.com .
For more detailed information on DORF visit www.dorfword.org and look out for their next groundbreaking show. They plan on four shows per year. Email: dorf@dofworld.org