The Contemporary Austin’s Fall 2022 exhibition IN A DREAM YOU SAW A WAY TO SURVIVE AND YOU WERE FULL OF JOY took its title from an iconic text by Jenny Holzer. In conjunction with the exhibition and in collaboration with the artist, the museum presents Holzer’s text as a mural on the fascade of our downtown Austin building. The text derives from Holzer’s series Survival (1983–85), an exploration of the ways individuals respond to their political, social, physical, and psychological environments. Since its creation, the text has been presented in various formats, including plaques, LED signs, projections, and billboards.

Jenny Holzer (born 1950) is a conceptual and installation artist whose work deploys text in public spaces across an array of media, including electronic signs, carved stone, paintings, billboards, and prints. Holzer provokes public debate and illuminates social and political justice. Celebrated for her inimitable use of language and projects in the public sphere, Holzer creates a powerful tension between the realms of feeling and knowledge, with a practice that encompasses individual and collective experiences of power and violence, vulnerability and tenderness.

Holzer’s work has appeared in public places and exhibitions around the world, including the Guggenheim Museums in New York and Bilbao, the Whitney Museum of American Art, Tate Modern, and the Louvre Abu Dhabi. She was the first female artist to represent the United States with a solo exhibition at the Venice Biennale in 1990.

VISIT

Come see the mural on the northwest corner of Congress Avenue and 7th Street in downtown Austin!

Learn more about IN A DREAM YOU SAW A WAY TO SURVIVE AND YOU WERE FULL OF JOY and book tickets to visit the exhibition.