Nowadays, Austin, Texas may be considered a venerable indie music and art Mecca, but only a few years ago, the city’s contemporary art scene was much more transient. The formation of art collectives like Okay Mountain has given artists more incentive to set down roots.
“There wasn’t always a lot going on in terms of spaces, so people just took it upon themselves to kind of just start doing things DIY style and open their own spaces,” co-founder Carlos Rosales-Silva says. “Now, there’s always young people coming through, and it seems like there’s people starting to stick around now, whereas before it was like people would make work for a while and often move to some bigger place.”
In 2006, Okay Mountain was created by Rosales-Silva, Corkey Sinks, Josh Rios, Justin Goldwater, Ryan Hennessee, Nathan Green, Peat Duggins, Michael Sieben, Sterling Allen, and Tim Brown. The collective formed in order to continue the growing sense of community that was fostered at earlier creative startups like Camp Fig and Fresh Up Club that had closed up shop.
“At the time, there was kind of a lack of younger gallery spaces that showed more contemporary work,” Rosales-Silva says. “[We] wanted to keep a network going between all of these people and have a space where it was just fun and exciting to work. There wasn’t really a space to do that in Austin.”
Although some of Okay Mountain’s founding members were involved with Camp Fig and Fresh Up Club, the group realized that they’d have to be quick studies if they wanted their gallery to successfully pick up where previous alternative art spaces left off.
“It was a pretty steep learning curve for everyone in terms of running a space that’s a business and also dealing with artists, interacting with collectors, the public or the press,” Rosales-Silva says. “It was a very educational experience for everyone involved.”
For its upcoming show, Okay Mountain has invited Dutch artist Ruth Van Beek to showcase some of her latest surrealist collages, sculptures, and paintings in The Great Blue Mountain Range, which runs from September 18 to October 16. “Having Ruth is very exciting, because we’re all really into her work and no one really knew her before that,” Rosales-Silva says. “So [it’s] really nice to have her down here.”
In addition to running the gallery space, the group is also commissioned for projects including custom murals for Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Austin Ventures, and a site-specific installation for Texas State University.
“We can make things pretty quickly because we have so many hands and so much creative energy going into a project, so it just turns into something unique,” Rosales-Silva says.
One of the most prominent installations that the group has created was a makeshift corner store for the 2009 PULSE Miami Art Fair. They designed and constructed each aspect of the store, including the signage and merchandise that it was selling. The months of work paid off because it was a total hit among PULSE attendees.
“We kind of came up with this idea to do a corner store, lightly critiquing the commercial aspects of the fair environment,” Rosales-Silva says. “It was a huge success, more successful that we would have ever thought.”
The group’s presence at PULSE also allowed it to continue building a stronger reputation at a national level, which in turn has led to more opportunities to be able to show its work. “That kind of set itself up for the rest of the year in terms of shows,” Rosales-Silva says. “It was a pretty fun and awesome thing that we got to do, and we were pretty happy with the results.”
Okay Mountain has made significant strides in the past four years, and although some of the original members have relocated to other cities, the group still plays a meaningful role in making Austin’s contemporary art scene a permanent fixture.
“There is still a pocket of us that are here, and we really enjoy running the gallery and we enjoy Austin, Texas and the fact that we are able to make work and exhibit in places while still living here,” Rosales-Silva says. “It’s also something that we are proud of that we had a hand in building, so it’s kind of important for us to be here and be able to bring this attention to Texas.”