Tucked away on East Sixth in Austin, Haus Obscura is an art gallery and print shop founded by Mark Mikhail and Heather Slingerland. The couple built the space themselves, with no prior art industry experience. Mikhail taught himself fine art printing to support Slingerland's photography and to make the venture economically viable. Their mission includes offering exhibition opportunities and high-quality prints to local artists of all income levels.
Tucked between a wholesale poultry company and a hair salon on a quiet stretch of East Sixth, a sign bearing the mysterious phrasebeckons passerby into a shaded courtyard.
That courtyard, and the tandem art gallery/print shop it leads into, was built entirely by Mark Mikhail and Heather Slingerland, a couple from the Bay Area who have hit the ground running since moving to Austin in March of last year. Neither Mikhail nor Slingerland had any experience working in the art world before deciding to open Haus Obscura.
What they did have was a dream to get Slingerland’sshown in a gallery space, and a guy with 25 years of engineering and construction experience.
“Apparently I’m just someone who’s really interested in learning new things and not afraid to be out of my comfort zone,” says Mikhail. “So when I thought about getting into the creative world and trying to transition my career, call it a midlife crisis or not – I’ve had really good luck. ” That willingness to try new things led Mikhail to teach himself how to print fine art.
“Since Heather’s already a photographer, I thought, hey, let me just print some of this work and go out and try to sell it to some of these galleries around town,” he explains. “During that process I found that it was 1) incredibly expensive to print, 2) not as easy as people made it out to be. But essentially it became something that I got interested in; like, let me just see if we can do this ourselves.
” The rest was just a matter of trial and error.
“I hardly ever read a manual, unless I have to, and even if I do, my ADD does not let me get past one paragraph. I’m not afraid to fuck up, not afraid to say I don’t know something. ” Acknowledging they’re the new kids on the block, Haus Obscura wants to offer Austin artists of any income level the chance to exhibit in their space and get high quality prints of their work.
“We help them scan and print the artwork at no expense to them, and then we sell the artwork, and then they get a cut of the sale, so with no upfront cost, they can get into the printing and selling of their work,” says Mikhail. “That’s how we’re trying to give back to the community.
” They also want to make art accessible to buyers that maybe can’t afford an original, so they offer on-demand prints of anything that’s on the wall.
“Whenever anyone walks in and they want to buy a piece of art, they have the choice of a custom print,” says Mikhail. “That kind of bridges the gap in affordability,” says Slingerland. “It allows an artist to reach a much larger audience.
” Further expanding access, a vending machine sits in front of the gallery filled with 4×6 and 5×7 postcard prints of the work inside, along with beauty products from the hair salon next door, Shag Noir – sort of a sampler for the local businesses the neighborhood has to offer. That spirit of accessibility and collaboration is what attracted artist Erin E Freeman to work with Haus Obscura – her work graced the opening last Friday along with local oil painterFreeman says during the printing process, Mikhail was “very hands-on, very open to working with you.
Like, I was standing over his shoulder, and he wasn’t freaked out at all. ” Much of Freeman’s work uses glowing orange and red neons, which are difficult to translate into print.
“Once you adjust one thing, you can sometimes lose other stuff, so I was so happy to be able to be a little hands-on with the pieces that need it. ”Ultimately, the openness and collaboration in everything Mikhail and Slingerland do is what makes Haus Obscura so promising.
“There’s no gatekeeping,” says Mikhail. “We want our customers to be the experts as well, because I feel like that helps get the best product out there. ”, will run through July 23. has been Austin’s independent news source for over 40 years, expressing the community’s political and environmental concerns and supporting its active cultural scene. Now more than ever, we need your support to continue supplying Austin with independent, free press.
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Haus Obscura Austin Art Gallery Print Shop Mark Mikhail Heather Slingerland
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