Austin Area Arts names its 2025 Austin ArtWorks Festival featured artist – Austin Daily Herald

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This years Austin ArtWorks Festival Featured Artist, Suyao Tian. Photo provided

An example of Suyao Tian’s work. Tian is this year’s featured artist for the Austin ArtWorks Festival. Photo provided

Jerry and Mary Anne Wolesky are this year’s 2025 Purchase Award donors. Photo provided

Austin Area Arts on Monday announced its featured artist for the 2025 Austin ArtWorks Festival — Suyao Tian.

Tian is a professional artist based in the Twin Cities, who currently serves as adjunct faculty at the Minneapolis College of Art and Design, teaching water-based media studio classes. She is the founder and owner of Viewpoint Gallery, an executive board member of Art Buddies, and a board member of the Northeast Minneapolis Arts Association (NEMAA). 

In Suyao’s professional artistic career, she works as an independent curator and water based media abstract painter. She is represented by Claire Oliver Gallery in New York City. Her paintings have been featured in numerous group and solo exhibitions both nationally and internationally, and have been permanently collected by museums, institutions, and renowned collectors, such as the North Dakota Museum of Art, the University of Minnesota, and more. 

In the commercial art arena, Tian has worked with prestigious companies such as Target, Room & Board, MSP International Airport, and BOND International Design Agency, among others.

Festival goers will find Tian outside on festival grounds both days where she will demonstrate her painting and answer questions. She will also have work exhibited in the 2nd floor gallery space of the Austin ArtWorks Center during the festival. 

Along with the featured artist announcement, it was also revealed that Mary Anne and Jerry Wolesky are this year’s Purchase Award donors. 

“We love the Austin ArtWorks Festival weekend and have enjoyed volunteering all fourteen years. It is a fun filled weekend of the arts and so many talented artists, musicians, authors and theatre loving people come to Austin and are involved in making it happen,” the Woleskys said Monday in a press release. “We are very much looking forward to another great Austin ArtWorks Festival this year and are so happy to be part of it.” 

This is the 14th year of the annual festival, which will take place on Aug. 23-24 in downtown Austin. 

This year’s festival will feature over 80 exhibiting and emerging artists, authors, theater arts, live music, free family art activities, and art making demonstrations. A special family show is also planned for Saturday evening as part of a soft opening of the newly renovated Historic Paramount Theatre.