When opportunity knocked next door, Julie Ahmad answered by knocking down a wall.
The longtime Austin artist had spent six years working alone in her South Austin studio before expanding into the adjoining property this spring, transforming it into The Women’s Gallery. The space is meant to give female artists more visibility and connection in a city where creative real-estate keeps tightening.
Ahmad’s gallery sits in one of Austin’s oldest continuously operating artist complexes on Thornton Road, off Oltorf Street. The low-slung stretch of concrete studios once housed machine shops and storage units, but now buzzes with painters, potters and musicians. Ahmad’s adjoined units glow white with new drywall and paintings from more than a dozen artists.
Ahmad leased her first studio about six years ago after months of waiting for a vacancy, taking on a renovation loan to make the space usable.
“It was a wreck,” she said. “I had to redo everything, but once I did, it felt like mine.”
At first, it was strictly a personal workspace, but as she navigated the social and personal pressures of the COVID pandemic, Ahmad wanted something more outward-facing that would allow her to show her art, host events and champion other female artists.
“I was angry about a lot of things like inequality and injustice, and it wasn’t helping anyone,” she said. “So instead of being angry, I decided to put that energy into supporting women. That felt like something that could actually make a difference.”
After expanding, Ahmad rebranded in September, launching The Women’s Gallery by Julie Ahmad. Amid a long-standing imbalance in art-world representation, the gallery is part corrective. It's also part community builder. She hosts happy hours where collectors mingle with artists and begins each exhibition by having artists introduce themselves and build connections.
Ahmad runs The Women’s Gallery as both a creative project and a small business. Artists and the gallery split commissions, an arrangement that’s commonplace in the art world. Ahmad notes she also focuses heavily on marketing by tagging artists on social media, hiring photographers and DJs for events, and promoting shows with an energy more akin to a startup than a traditional gallery.
“I’ve been in galleries where my art wasn’t even on the website,” she said. “Here, we make sure people see you. It’s about visibility.”
Her roster has grown to 18 artists, including four guest artists in an annex she’s dubbed the salon. The gallery is serving as a hub during the Austin Studio Tour along with several other neighboring art and creative spaces.
Among the artists showing during the tour is Amanda Baker, a painter based in Luling who works in acrylics and often explores abstract female forms.
It’s Baker’s first Austin show in years, and a reentry into a creative life that had slowed down after marriage and motherhood.
“I was nervous,” she said. “I didn’t know if I was ready to show again, but Julie made it possible.”
The invitation came through her husband, an art appraiser who met Ahmad on a client call.
“It just unfolded from there,” she said. “I love that it’s a women-focused space. It gives us a chance to meet each other and feel supported. It gives me hope.”
She plans to show about 10 paintings during the tour. “I’m an introvert, so I know I’ll be wiped out,” she said. “But it’s exciting.”
Ahmad now manages about 2,400 square feet between her two connected spaces. She plans to stage three large shows a year and smaller programs every six weeks. With the extra room, she’s also experimenting with private events and partnerships that can help sustain the gallery financially, from corporate art nights to client appreciation gatherings that include artwork credits.
“It’s a way to get people in here and make it an experience,” she said.
For Ahmad, those Austin Studio Tour crowds are less about sales than proof of what’s possible when artists support one another in a city where space is hard to find.
And outside, the area will buzz with foot traffic and the hum of activity from neighboring studios operating with the same sense of purpose.
“This is my creative project now,” she said. “It’s business, but it’s also community.”
