Artsty New Year

Hanging Around Austin: 4 fresh art shows to kick off 2015

Happy 2015! Now that the holiday hangover is starting to wear off, we all need some edifying cultural experiences to help us through resolution season. These shows join multiple selections from our list of December art exhibits that remain live through the beginning of the month, so the variety is vast. Go see something!

Contamination | Pollination
pump project, through January 10

Elizabeth McDonald trained as a painter in both Texas and the U.K. Her exhibition addresses the tender underside of individual and collective anxieties by throwing light on our rituals and capturing their shadows on canvas and in form. Viewings are by appointment, or walk in on Saturday, January 10.

Collective Chemistry
Davis Gallery, through January 10

The holiday showcase at Davis remains in force in the new year, and collectors and spectators alike are richer for it. Stop in to check out paintings, sculpture, photography, ink prints and mixed media collage works by Caprice Pierucci, Matthew Fuller, Laurel Daniel, Joseph Hammer, Chun Hui Pak, Lisa Beaman, Chris De Dier and more.

Richard T. Walker: the predicament of always (as it is)
Gatehouse at the Contemporary Austin – Laguna Gloria, through January 11

For this video installation at the Laguna Gloria Gatehouse, British-born Walker slung musical instruments around the Texas landscape and triggered them in unconventional ways. The result is a delicate balance of interactions between consciousness and the natural world that’s part performance art and part nature photography. It gives "rock music" a sly new meaning.

Susi Brister: Fables
Women & Their Work, through January 15

Although her current work is exhibited as photography, it’s fair to say that Susi Brister’s true medium is the landscape itself. Extraordinary creatures swaddled in faux fur and neon acrylic crystals emerge from quiet country scenes, disturbing the mundane world and letting the light of the sublime seep in.

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Get Mesmerized

Buzzy art collective Mesmerize opens new immersive space in Austin

A woman walks up the exhibit's rainbow stairway to the clouds.

Photo courtesy of Mesmerize.

Living Dream features over 14 interactive, psychedelic art installations, like this dreamlike stairway to the clouds.

On November 13, a new immersive art experience in South Austin officially opened its trippy, dream-like doors. It's by Mesmerize, the team that operated a similar and hugely popular exhibit from 2020-2021 at the now-closed Native Hostel on 5th Street.

Living Dream is a series of mazes and more than 14 installations created by local artists. Guests can move through, interact with, and of course, take psychedelic photos with the space. It's sort of like Meow Wolf, but smaller and with a different storyline and theme.

In Living Dream, the story is that this regular, rather plain-looking warehouse facility in South Austin has been fractured by a strange force of nature: the eight-foot-tall Colossal Crystal. Now lines between ordinary Austin life and fantasy are blurred, and Austinites are welcome to explore it.

See on Instagram

Aside from this crystal centerpiece, other art installations include a dreamy, rainbow mural that you can step inside by artist Inne Aguilar; a projection-mapped room featuring Bill Tavis's signature psychedelic painting style; a tufted hidden crawlspace by Hannah Buserkus; the nightmarish but whimsical "Mulligrub Meadow" by artist Liza Fishbone; and a rainbow stairway to the clouds.

Of course it wouldn't feel right to walk through such a dreamy space in utter silence, so the creators brought in musicians like Alex Scott, A.M. Architect, Austin Ray, Andrea Magee, and many more to create an original score for the experience.

Mesmerize Living Dream Mesmerize shared this photo thanking Inne Aguilar for her work.Mesmerize/Instagram

This multi-sensory and family-friendly adventure may be one of Mesmerize's most in-depth. It operated its Native Hostel exhibit, This Is Mesmerize, for nine months, and racked up countless Instagram posts. The exhibit closed in 2021, about two years before Native Hostel closed. Mesmerize has also collaborated with various artists and and collectives over the years to throw some of the trippiest art parties in town.

Living Dream by Mesmerize is located at 820 Shelby Ln., and is open Wednesdays through Fridays from 3 pm to 11 pm, and Saturdays and Sundays from 11 am to 11 pm.

interactive exhibits immersive