Today we’d like to introduce you to Jake Bryer.
Hi Jake, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
The full story is a correlation of two separate instances in my life (it’s not brief). First, in 2006, I was at the tail end of working in advertising for a local newspaper. I wanted to make a major career move, but not a lateral move. A year earlier (2005), I took a solo 3 week backpacking trip around Europe around Christmas (the only time my work would allow me such a long trip), which gave me ample time to self-reflect and align my career goals. Towards the end of the trip, I was in the castle-walled town of Cesky Krumlov on the border of the Czech Republic and Austria, strolling through the Egon Schiele Museum with a bit of onset flu. I spent the whole day there (between sniffles) engulfed in a treasure trove of the artist’s brilliant, but short lived collection of raw unique illustrative portraits. I was fascinated with his story, a life dedicated to the pursuit of creativity, with such bold style and unapologetic reckless expression, which sparked controversy in the early 1900s. At that moment, I decided that was what I wanted, a life dedicated to creativity, particularly related to the visual arts.
The second life moment that set me on my path happened in 2007. I was moving into an apartment with my girlfriend (now my wife) Michelle. However, one item of her decor was not something I wanted to share in our new living space. It was a large painting from her ex-boyfriend. Ever the diplomat, I proposed a win-win scenario – If she would get rid of the painting, I’d buy us a new original art piece to replace it for our new place. She loved the idea, so with a $600-$1000 budget we set out on a mission to find a painting. After visiting many local galleries and a few art fairs over the span of two months, we could not find anything within our budget. However, these weekend outings gave me insight and a lot of thoughts about the local Austin art market. The galleries seemed to only cater to the top echelon of wealth in the ATX community. They felt stuffy and most didn’t advertise the prices. It reminded me of a wine menu without prices, the “if you have to ask, you can’t afford it” type. This felt disconnected to Austin’s laid back style and vibe.
This art buying outing got my wheels spinning about the art business, which leads us to 2007 and my quest to pursue a creative path towards art. I thought of a gallery that would be the opposite of the posh galleries in town, something that could be for all socio-economic walks of life, and pair it with talented local emerging artists worthy of collecting from. With transparent prices, a website that reflected those prices and the ability to buy art online (possibly the first dedicated website to buying art online in 2007, as we searched for a rival and found none). So I called up my friend, Joel Ganucheau, one of the few visual artists I knew from high school and college, who was working at an art publishing company. I pitched him my idea and he was immediately on-board, Then we started looking for a place. From a craigslist ad, we found a little warehouse off South Lamar and rented it. Thus, the Austin Art Garage was born.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
Early on, I realized that I needed to be an artist as well to meet my financial goals, as the gallery profit wasn’t paying the bills at first. I’d always been into photography and graphic design. So I combined those two skills and started making composite photography art in 2007. Nevertheless, being an artist and gallery owner has its challenges. As you can imagine it’s not easy running a small business in ATX, and the gallery often takes priority above my creative pursuits as an artist. It’s also hard to do payroll and accounting on the same days I want to be creative. Like mental gymnastics switching from the left to right brain. Furthermore, we have weathered many storms as a business. Like opening in 2007, right before the 2008 recession, the enormous increase in commercial rental prices over the years, and Covid. Luckily, in 2008 people were still buying art, but looking for more affordable art, which we had. Also, during COVID, people were renovating their homes, which greatly increased our online sales that year.
Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
It sounds cliche, but I’m most proud of being a father / husband and supporting my family, which ties into my strong work ethic and motivation to succeed in my career. That career consists of running a gallery and being an artist. It organically happened in that order, but I wouldn’t change it, because I like that my art is surrounded by many other talented local artists. That being said, my composite photography and mixed media art reflects my surroundings, so it often depicts scenes of Austin. I guess that I’m known for my mixed media Austin themed art in a unique fashion. I see Austin as a dynamic (always moving, and changing) place and I enjoy portraying that in bold epic visual ways. Aside from my art, I take a lot of pride in helping other artists. They often lack the business savvy side of the art business, so we have built a platform to help elevate them and navigate the business side through our marketing strategies. Plus, reminding people in the community to support the local arts, which is a reflection of the beauty and vibe of our city.
Alright so before we go can you talk to us a bit about how people can work with you, collaborate with you or support you?
Buy locally made art and encourage others to do so as well! That’s our whole mission, to advocate for local artists and encourage people in the community to help them create. I think of it as becoming part of their story. Each purchase of local art helps the artist on their path. Also, follow us on Instagram (@austinartgarage) to see new art and learn about our upcoming art openings.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://austinartgarage.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/austinartgarage/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/artgarage2/
