Join Future Front and TOMO mags for a tour of "Silencio en el fondo," a solo show by Atlanta-based artist Aineki Traverso at McLennon Pen Co.
The tour begins promptly at 6 PM, followed by blind contour drawing sessions, a visit from the TOMO mags bus and open gallery hours. Come and go as you wish after 6:30 PM!
All are welcome. Scroll for details.
Aineki Traverso, In Which I Liquify, 2024, oil on canvas, 60 x 48 inches
WHAT TO EXPECT
BEHIND THE SHOW
Atlanta-based artist Aineki Traverso was McLennon Pen Co’s 2026 Summer Artist-in-Residence. Traverso spent the month of August working within the gallery's Austin space, transforming the exhibition venue into a temporary studio and producing the solo show now on view, “Silencio en el fondo.”
The 2026 Summer Artist-in-Residence marks the fourth year of McLennon Pen Co.’s annual residency program, which transforms the traditionally quiet month of August into a period of artistic production and public engagement. Rather than closing during this seasonal lull, the gallery invites an artist to temporarily inhabit and activate the space, culminating in a public exhibition of newly created work.
This year, the program has become fiscally sponsored by Future Front, allowing McLennon Pen Co. to seek and accept donations in support of the residency and provide resources for the artist’s travel, lodging, and materials. The program is committed to supporting artists at pivotal moments in their careers while fostering dialogue and exchange between visiting artists and Austin’s creative community. Generous support provided by Suzanne Deal Booth, Michael Zamkow and the Sue Berman Charitable Foundation, and Alina and David Casner.
ABOUT THE ARTIST
Aineki Traverso (b. 1991, Washington, DC) is a painter based in Atlanta. Her work has been exhibited in spaces such as Half Gallery (New York, NY), March Gallery (New York, NY), and MEY Gallery (Los Angeles, CA). She has participated in residencies at R&F Handmade Paints, Vermont Studio Center, the Hambidge Center, VCCA, and is a current resident in the Studio Artist Program at Atlanta Contemporary.
Traverso’s work has been reviewed in ArtReview, Burnaway, and Impulse Magazine, and was featured on the cover of Issue #178 of New American Paintings in 2026. Aineki has received the 2024 Atlanta Artadia Award and the 2023 Edge Award from the Forward Arts Foundation, among others. Aineki is represented in the Southeastern United States by Wolfgang Gallery (Atlanta, GA).
Traverso’s paintings explore the relationship between memory, absence, and the body, considering painting as a means of preserving, transforming, and making sense of human experience. Her works emerge from moments of disappearance: the spaces where memories fade, identities shift, or something once present becomes inaccessible. For Traverso, painting functions simultaneously as an act of mourning and celebration—a way to hold onto the past, process the present, and imagine what has yet to come.
A central concept within Traverso’s practice is the lacuna, an unfilled space where something once existed. She considers these gaps as metaphors for absences within memory, family histories, cultural connections, and lived experience. Oscillating between the vernaculars of figuration and abstraction, Traverso gives form to what cannot always be fully seen or articulated. Bodies, landscapes, and symbolic imagery emerge from and dissolve into fields of color and movement, creating paintings that exist between remembrance and invention.
In recent years, Traverso has shifted from working primarily on canvas to painting on panel, drawn to the distinct physicality of the surface and the way it alters the application and presence of paint. Her compositions often unfold across multiple panels, including diptychs, triptychs, and larger sequential arrangements, allowing images to operate less as singular moments and more as fragments of an evolving narrative. At times, these panels extend across the architecture of the gallery, wrapping around corners and disrupting conventional modes of viewing. The divisions between paintings become spaces of transition, collapsing different temporalities—past, present, and imagined futures—into a single pictorial field.
HOW TO ATTEND
This tour is free and open to the public, thanks to Future Front, TOMO mags and McLennon Pen Co.
If you’re a Future Front member, this event is free for you and your guests.
REGISTER BELOW:
Zenko Photography
PLAN YOUR VISIT
McLennon Pen Co. is located at 1114 W 5th St #202, Austin, TX 78703.
AVAILABLE LANGUAGES — ASL interpreters can be provided upon request. Si necesita traducción al español para participar en este evento, envíenos un correo electrónico a hello@futurefronttexas.org.
OUR COMMUNITY SAFETY GUIDELINES —
All Future Front staff, volunteers and guests will be required to practice mutual respect, as well as demonstrate an alignment with Future Front’s code of conduct and values: futurefronttexas.org/values.
Capacity is limited to reduce crowding of any kind and all events will be held in primarily outdoor and open-air spaces or have access to proper ventilations and well-maintained A/C systems.
At Future Front events, all guests are expected to follow Austin-local health and safety guidelines for gatherings, as well as practice consideration with the consumption of tobacco, alcohol and any other legal, mind-altering or dangerous substances and objects. This includes:
As Future Front strives to be a good neighbor, we also discourage the use of tobacco products on the property of nearby businesses and residences, to improve air quality, throughout our events.
Tobacco use and electronic smoking device use are not permitted at any time within Future Front properties and event spaces at least 15 ft from entrances, exits, operational windows, or ventilation system intake vents.
Littering of tobacco-related products on the grounds or parking lots is also prohibited.
Concealed or open weapons and firearms (including handguns) are not allowed at any Future Front venues.
GOT QUESTIONS? Shoot us a note at hello@futurefronttexas.org. We're happy to help and will get back to you!
BEHIND THIS TOUR
McLennon Pen Co. Gallery was founded by Jill McLennon in March 2023 with a commitment of showcasing the work of emerging and internationally established artists.
The gallery aims to present contemporary art that is exciting, poetic, and emblematic of the times, while also placing the work within a historical context. In June 2025, the gallery expanded from its original East Austin house gallery into a new 2,300 square foot commercial location at 1114 W 5th Street, at the gateway to Clarksville and Old West Austin. Prior to relocating to Austin, McLennon spent thirteen years working in New York City for globally renowned commercial art galleries and auction houses in placing contemporary artwork in private and public collections, curating exhibitions, and supporting some of today’s most esteemed living artists in their career development. The name of the gallery has been passed down from McLennon's grandfather who established a luxury pen shop in downtown Chicago that originally opened in 1934.
Not just a magazine shop—TOMO mags is a playground for your brain.
TOMO mags began as a passion project inside a restored school bus—traveling throughout the city, popping up at galleries, universities, and coffee shops. What started on wheels grew into experimental spaces and collaborations, and today it continues with our shop in Austin and the rebirth of the TOMO mags bus. We’re still on the move, still building spaces that invite curiosity. Find inspiration, discover new voices, and take something real in your hands to push your ideas forward or simply enjoy.
Homegrown in Austin, Future Front is an award-winning cultural space and public exhibition series—with women and LGBTQ+ creatives at the front.
As a 501c3 arts and culture nonprofit, we produce two annual community-led exhibitions, The Front Market and The Front Festival, platforming independent artists and creatives across disciplines in Texas. Beyond our flagship exhibitions, we host seasonal shows and workshops at our creative space in East Austin, welcoming 20,000+ visitors per year.
Through these programs and a diverse network of partnerships, we invite the public (including you) to dream of a future where local art and creativity thrive in Texas—where we see ourselves and our cultures reflected in our communities.
FUTURE FRONT IS SUPPORTED IN PART BY an Elevate Grant of Austin Arts, Culture, Music and Entertainment, Tito’s Handmade Vodka, Texas Commission on the Arts, The LINE Hotel Austin, Pease Park Conservancy, Preservation Austin, Movability,ART FOR ALL, Partiful, Moontower Rentals, Distribution Hall, Miscellaneous Rentals, Thirstday Tequila, the Red River Cultural District, Topo Chico, as well as Future Front’s donors and members.