WaterWork

WaterWork returns September 25-26, 2026!

See the iconic façade of the historic Seaholm Intake Facility transform into a vibrant canvas of art, light, and motion. WaterWork is a unique, immersive art experience produced by Design Austin in partnership with The Trail Conservancy that celebrates the dynamic relationship between Austin’s urban landscape and its cherished natural environment.

Using state-of-the-art projection mapping technology, the Seaholm Waterfront will come alive with captivating artworks from twenty-two talented Central Texas artists: Alexis Hunter, Beili Liu, Bethany Johnson, Brandon LeJeune, Brian Skalak, Cathy Le, Chris Tobar Rodriguez, Eric Schoenborn, Mishka Westell, Jesse Ebaugh, Essentials Creative (team), Hillerbrand+Magsamen, Lauren Schroeder, Lisa B Woods+Jerome Martinez, Mandy Mandelstein, Taylor Speed+Greg D’Amico, and Terra Henderson.

Each artist’s work explores and illuminates the vibrant coexistence between Austin’s bustling cityscape and its restorative natural spaces.

The immersive display will take place at dusk on Friday, September 25, and Saturday, September 26, 2026. 

This year’s WaterWork is presented by This is Texas Water and supported by an Elevate grant from the City of Austin ACME (Austin Arts, Culture, Music and Entertainment).

Sponsorship opportunities are outlined here. For more information, email erika@designaustin.org.

How to See the Show

Shoreline Viewing

• WaterWork is free and open to the public. The show will be projected on the side of the historic Seaholm Intake Facility with multiple viewing locations across Lady Bird Lake from the Butler Hike-and-Bike Trail. Ideal viewing locations include:
  • Auditorium Shores (viewing spot 1, spot 2, and spot 3)
  • Pfluger Pedestrian Bridge
• If you choose to watch the show on land, arrive early to make sure you get a good spot!

Kayak + Paddle Board Rentals

• The Seaholm Intake Facility sits on the edge of Lady Bird Lake, allowing for an incredible lakefront view of the show. Viewers can either rent or bring their personal watercraft to watch. Viewing space will fill up; plan ahead and hit the water before showtime.
• Thank you to Texas Rowing Center and Austin Rowing Club for staying open late for WaterWork! Use these exclusive links to rent watercraft for the show:
  • Austin Rowing Club
  • Texas Rowing Center

Boat Tickets

• Save your seat on one of our boat cruises to view WaterWork on the water!
• Please arrive early; the boats will begin boarding at 7:30 and will depart the dock promptly at 8:00!
  • Friday Night Tickets
  • Saturday Night Tickets

Retro Boat Rentals

• Thanks to our friends at Retro Boat, four boats are available each night for Friday, September 25 and Saturday, September 26. Gather up to six friends and cruise out onto Lady Bird Lake for an up-close view of this one-of-a-kind immersive performance, WaterWork, on the water in front of Seaholm.
• Your reservation includes a Retro Boat, prime viewing of the WaterWork performance, and a basket of complimentary refreshments to enjoy throughout the evening.
  • $500 per boat
  • Capacity varies between 4 and 6 guests per boat
  • Rent boats here

Sizzle Reel

2026 Artists

Alexis Hunter

Alexis Hunter

https://alexishunter.studio

Alexis Hunter is a multidisciplinary artist, curator, and educator currently living and working in Austin, TX. She earned a BFA in Studio Art from Texas State University in 2022, graduating summa cum laude. Her work explores self-image, racial identity, the female body, and the male gaze, through painting, video, social practice, and participatory programming. Hunter approaches both making and curating with honesty and vulnerability, creating spaces for empathy, dialogue, and communal engagement. She currently teaches painting at The Contemporary Austin’s Art School at Laguna Gloria and serves on the Curatorial Advisory Board for Future Front Texas and the Advisory Council for DORF. She was named Austin Chronicle’s Best Visual Artist of 2023, reflecting her impact on the Austin arts community and her ongoing commitment to supporting artists and cultural spaces.

Beili Liu

Beili Liu

htpps://beililiu.com

Beili Liu is a visual artist who has exhibited extensively across the globe, in locations including Norway, Finland, UK, Germany, Italy, Spain, Lithuania, France, Belgium, Austria, Poland, China, Taiwan and across the United States. Liu has received numerous fellowships and awards, including the Andrew Carnegie Fellowship (2022-2024), the Pollock Prize for Creativity (2022), the Fulbright Arctic Chair, Norway (2021-2022), the Joan Mitchell Painters and Sculptors Grant (2016), the National Endowment for the Arts Challenge America Grant through the Museum of Southeast Texas (2014). In 2018, Liu was honored by the Texas Legislature as the Texas State Artist in 3D medium.

Bethany Johnson

Bethany Johnson

http://bethanyjo.com/

Based in Austin since 2008, Bethany Johnson is an artist working in a cross-disciplinary practice integrating drawing, collage, sculpture and the moving image. Johnson received an MFA in Painting from the University of Texas at Austin in 2011. Her work is represented by Moody Gallery in Houston, where her sixth solo exhibition with the gallery is forthcoming in fall 2026. She is an Associate Professor in the School of Art and Design at Texas State University, and a recipient of a 2023 Pollock-Krasner Foundation Artist Grant.

Brandon LeJeune (aka Brandon Stargrave)

Brandon LeJeune (aka Brandon Stargrave)

https://www.brandonstargrave.com/

Brandon Stargrave is a creative technologist focused on generative, interactive, and immersive audiovisual experiences. He builds deeply interconnected systems that meld hardware, software, and protocols into tangible expressions of art and technology. He often works with pen plotters and 3D printers to bring digital generative art into the analog physical realm.

Brandon is the Lab Manager for the Lab for Immersive Media (LIM) and an instructor in the Department of Arts and Entertainment Technologies at UT Austin, where he works extensively with motion tracking systems and sensors, large-scale video projections and mapping, real-time visual rendering programs like TouchDesigner and Unreal Engine, DAWs and audio programming environments, dynamic LED lighting, and more to create embodied, interactive, immersive experiences. He also designs, develops, and engineers interactive installations with dadaLab and teaches new-media focused classes and workshops with dadaGeek.

Brian Skalak (Second Sight Visuals)

Brian Skalak (Second Sight Visuals)

https://www.secondsightvisuals.com/

Brian Skalak is the Founder & Memory Designer of Second Sight Visuals.

Brian specializes in bridging the gap between bold creative vision and real-world execution. With a deep understanding of both creative intent and technical constraints, he helps teams translate big ideas into experiences that are achievable, scalable, and unforgettable.

Believe in impossible things.

This project is in collaboration with Dane Cree and Jim Elli.

Cathy Le

Cathy Le

https://www.thecathyle.com/blog

Cathy Le is a Houston-born, Austin-based new media artist and software engineer whose practice moves between experimental media and systems thinking. Trained in Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Texas at Austin, she creates interactive installations, video works, and computational artworks exploring data, perception, and human behavior, often drawing parallels between digital structures and organic forms. Her projects have been presented through programs including the Museum of Human Achievement, Austin Studio Tour’s UNESCO Creative Cities showcase, Almost Real Things’ Touch the Art, and Hyde Park Theatre’s Frontera Fest.

Chris Tobar Rodriguez

Chris Tobar Rodriguez

https://www.tobartakeover.com/

Chris "Tobar" Rodriguez is an Afro-Latino artist and creative director based in Austin, Texas. Born in Chicago, shaped by Orlando, and rooted in Texas, his work explores identity, mythology, and the construction of cultural belonging.

He is the creator of The Neon Rodeo, a multimedia art universe that reimagines Western iconography through Black and Brown memory, self-determination, and visual storytelling.

Tobar also serves as Creative Director for the nonprofit arts organizations OFCOLOR and ContraCommon, building platforms that amplify artists of color and expand access to immersive cultural experience. His practice moves fluidly between the studio and the community, treating both as sites of world-building.

His work has been exhibited nationally and is recognized for its bold color, layered symbolism, and integration of mirrors, projection, and spatial narrative.

Eric Schoenborn, Mishka Westell, Jesse Ebaugh

Eric Schoenborn, Mishka Westell, Jesse Ebaugh

https://mishkawestell.com/

As one of the most influential illustrators in Southwest America, Austin-based Mishka Westell has created artwork for many of the world's most revered musicians, events and publications.

Past clients include Alabama Shakes, Ben Kweller, Black Pumas, Black Angels, Brian Wilson, Calexico, Dead & Company, El Cosmico, Emmylou Harris, Glastonbury Festival, Jack White, Jesus & Mary Chain, The Kills, Luck Reunion, Mavis Staples, The Melvins, Metallica, Mudhoney, My Morning Jacket, Patti Smith, Patty Griffin, Robert Plant, Roky Erickson, Spiritualized, Steve Earle, Willie Nelson, and The Zombies.

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Jesse Ebaugh is a bass player first and foremost. He composes, arranges and writes music and songs, plays jazz, rock and country music, and leads a country rock band called The Tender Things. Jesse made Austin his home years ago as the bassist/pedal steel-ist/guitarist/backing vocalist wizard for the Heartless Bastards. He’s been described by collaborators as “the guy you want to have in your band – versatile, passionate, neutral, solid.” He loves his wife and his dog and the state of Texas.

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Eric Schoenborn blends media, art, and technology to forge experiences that have engaged millions, online and offline. Possessed with the vernacular spirit of the backroads, backwoods, backrooms, back alleys, and backyards he grew up exploring in Kentucky, Eric creates experiences that ignite a sense of wonder and solidarity for participants of his story worlds. He has spent decades in collaboration with educators, researchers, innovators, artists, musicians, storytellers, policymakers, filmmakers and misfits worldwide including Lil Wayne, National Geographic, Sir Tim Berners Lee, and many others.

Essentials Creative

Essentials Creative

https://essentialscreative.com/

Essentials Creative is a collective of four artists, including members with Indigenous, Mexican American, and Japanese heritage. The core creative team at Essentials is made up of Misa Yamamoto (she/her), Fabian Leon Villa (he/him), Steven Casanova (he/him), and Sixto-Juan Zavala (he/him), who bring a wide range of experiences and perspectives to their work. Since 2011, the group has created installations and workshops that explore the cultural and ecological narratives of regional plant life. Their work brings together traditional ecological knowledge and contemporary artistic practices through collage, photography, and site-specific installation. Their work has been presented at venues including Mexic-Arte Museum, the Mexican Cultural Institute, San Antonio Central Library, Austin Central Library, Chicago Botanic Garden, and Blaffer Art Museum. Projects such as Rhizomatic at the Chicago Botanic Garden and installations at the Texas Biennial demonstrate their approach to translating plant knowledge into immersive, multimedia experiences. Through ongoing collaboration with community participants, Essentials Creative centers shared making as a way to honor ancestral knowledge while expanding the possibilities of contemporary art.

Hillerbrand+Magsamen

Hillerbrand+Magsamen

https://www.hillerbrandmagsamen.com/

Hillerbrand+Magsamen have worked collaboratively for over 25 years across video, photography, installations, and interdisciplinary performances. Their process-driven work embraces unpredictability, using everyday materials and actions to expand and reimagine domestic life. Balancing humor and tension, they amplify lived experience—jumping on trampolines, making mountains out of toys, cutting holes in their house, and building rocket ships in their backyard—creating an uncanny space where the real and unreal intersect.
Hillerbrand+Magsamen’s work has been presented at festivals including Ann Arbor Film Festival, Fusebox Festival (Austin, TX), CounterCurrent Festival (Houston, TX), and Diffusion Photography Festival (Wales, UK). Exhibitions include Big Medium (Austin, TX), FotoFest (Houston, TX), Grand Rapids Art Museum (Grand Rapids, MI), Everson Museum (Syracuse, NY), and Center for Photography Woodstock (Woodstock, NY).

They have received grants from Sustainable Arts Foundation, Austin Film Society, Houston Arts Alliance, and Experimental Television Center, and have participated in residency programs including Lower Manhattan Cultural Council (New York, NY), Experimental Television Center (Owego, NY), Wassaic Projects (Wassaic, NY), Vermont Studio Center (Johnson, VT), I-Park (East Haddam, CT), Elsewhere (Greensboro, NC), Lawndale Art Center (Houston, TX), and Santa Fe Art Institute (Santa Fe, NM). Stephan Hillerbrand is a recipient of two Fulbright Fellowships (Germany) and a MacDowell Colony (Peterborough, NH) residency. They are currently developing a commission for Austin-Bergstrom International Airport (Austin, TX).

Stephan Hillerbrand is a Professor of Art at the University of Houston (Houston, TX) and Mary Magsamen is the Public Program Coordinator at the Menil Collection (Houston, TX).

Lauren Schroeder

Lauren Schroeder

https://www.laurenschroeder.com/

Lauren Schroeder is a new media artist based in Austin, Texas. Her work blends diverse mediums with a playful sensibility, drawing from magical realism, musical instruments, and emerging technologies. Using tools like VR headsets and sensors, she creates immersive experiences that spark unexpected sensations, invite reflection, and encourage meaningful connection. Her interactive projects have been exhibited at Bumbershoot Arts & Music Festival (WA), Filmgate Interactive (FL), Fusebox Festival (TX), and Art Island ATX.

Lisa B Woods and Jerome Martinez

Lisa B Woods and Jerome Martinez

https://beta.openprocessing.org/user/54870/#sketches

Lisa B Woods is an interdisciplinary artist working across video, sculpture, installation, and physical computing. Her practice explores technology through ecology, perception, and embodied experience, using generative processes and sensing systems to make forces like heat, water, and light felt at a human scale.

She has exhibited at Aurora Dallas Video Art Night, SXSW, Co-Lab Projects, Texas A&M’s Wright Gallery, Reeves Art + Design, and Nicole Longnecker Gallery, and completed a residency with the UT Austin Center for Dynamics and Control of Materials. Based in Austin, she runs And&And Studios, is a member of ICOSA Collective, and serves on the UNESCO City of Media Arts Steering Committee.

Jerome Martinez is a creative technologist, software engineer, and educator working at the intersection of code and visual art. His generative work uses tools like p5.js and Processing to create dynamic, algorithm-driven visuals for installations and interactive art.

He has taught creative coding and projection mapping at dadaGeek and presented work at events including SXSW.

Mandy Mandelstein

Mandy Mandelstein

http://www.mandivision.com

Mandy Mandelstein is an Emmy Award-winning experiential designer, filmmaker, and media artist who crafts immersive, story-driven experiences that invite deeper connection with each other and the spaces we inhabit. Merging cinematic media, spatial design, and creative code, she brings environments to life in unexpected ways—creating thoughtful, interactive encounters that prompt viewers to re-evaluate their behavior and ponder on what it really means to be human. Her work evokes curiosity, wonder, and reflection, encouraging audiences to reframe how they see the world ( and their place in it) through a more playful and human lens.

Taylor Speed/Greg D'Amico

Taylor Speed/Greg D'Amico

https://www.letsmakestuffmove.com/

Taylor Speed has been working in Austin for over 5 years now with 8+ years shaping brand identities for home and hospitality spaces, She crafts holistic design concepts that feel intentional, experiential, and unmistakably on-brand.

Greg D’Amico is a Cincinnati based animator, motion designer, and projection mapping artist.

Terra Henderson

Terra Henderson

http://terrahenderson.com/reel

Terra Henderson is a motion designer and visual artist whose work explores transformation through color, depth, and movement. Rooted in a design background, her practice moves between structure and play, often reimagining rigid architectural and digital systems as fluid, living environments.

She holds a BFA in Motion Media Design from SCAD and has developed work across Atlanta, New York, Austin, and Dallas. Her projects span large scale projection, immersive installations, augmented reality, and screen based media, with work appearing in films, live performances, and public facing digital spaces.

While her freelance career includes collaborations with teams such as Google, Adobe, Netflix, and Meta, she approaches each project as a study in perception, using abstraction and rhythm to shift how spaces are experienced and understood.

WaterWork is produced by Design Austin in partnership with The Trail Conservancy

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