January brings in a new year, and with it, new exhibitions at AMOA-Arthouse! We’re excited to bring to Austin a fantastic arrangement of incredible work by artists from all across the world.
From January 14 through March 4, our new exhibition Evidence of Houdini’s Return will be on display at The Jones Center. This exhibition showcases the work of seven international artists working in a varied range of media. With their pieces they attempt to interrupt and reconstruct the elements of everyday life, utilizing the different variants of abstraction in a connected opposition to traditional fixed forms. Evidence of Houdini’s Return is sponsored by Johnna and Stephen Jones, and Gary and Kelly Cooper McClure.
On our First Floor Gallery, on display from January 14 – March 4 as well, is Jill Magid’s exhibition Failed States. 
The exhibition is an investigative look into the infamous yet mysterious shooting at the Texas state capitol by Fausto Cardenas. Coincidentally, Magid happened to be a witness of the event that day, and she has pursued with interest the numerous trials and investigations resulting from Fausto’s actions. The multi-dimensional exhibition uses both the gallery space and two offsite projects to explore the subtexts of coincidence, poetics, governmental power and bureaucracy surrounding the shooting and the institution of government itself. Be sure to stop by and see this highly engaging and ambitious show!
As part of our continuing LIFT Projects, Niklas Goldbach’s video Habitat C3B will be on display starting January 14th. The video explores a nearly deserted urban environment populated only by a handful of identical men engaging in an unknown mission. Produced at the main site of Georges Pompidou’s failed gentrification in the 15th arrondissement of Paris, the narrative follows one man as he travels through the stark and labyrinthine architecture, interacting with his fellow characters in a way that calls up plot twists from science fiction films. The video engages the viewer and draws one into the man’s journey throughout the complex and subtle system.
Also on display is Nina Fischer and Maroan el Sani’s video Toute la memoire du monde. The film will be on display from January 14 – March 4 in the Film and Video gallery, and is a breathtakingly beautiful revisiting of the similarly titled 1958 film by Alain Resnais. The documentary showcases the historic French Bibliothèque Nationale, located on the Rue de Richelieu in Paris, displaying its function as storehouse of the world’s knowledge. The library, seen fully occupied in the 1958 film, is now nearly vacant, and the few people still using it provide a reminder of the building’s past grandeur, despite its present near-emptiness.
On January 14th at 2:00 P.M., Jill Magid will discuss her exhibition with the AMOA-Arthouse audience. Admission is free and open to the general public, so if you can make it, be sure to stop by and be one of the firsts to preview a excellent sampling of what AMOA-Arthouse has in store for 2012!
