Go now: "Chris Jordan: Running the Numbers" at AMOA

If you’re in Austin—and especially if you’re an art director, graphic designer, or anyone else who has to organize info in a visually interesting way—get to the Austin Museum of Art to check out “Chris Jordan: Running the Numbers.” Now. (Well, at least before August 15.) It’s well worth the $5.

Chris Jordan turns stats into art. Most of us have trouble grasping the giant numbers we read in the news — that 1.14 million brown paper supermarket bags are used in the United States every hour, for example — but Chris Jordan lets you see just how many bags that is.

(Chris Jordan — Paper Bags, 2006 — Click to Enlarge)

An online picture doesn’t do it justice, but his website gallery has a pretty awesome zoom feature. Definitely check out Barbie Dolls.

If you aren’t in Austin, the exhibit (or another similar one) will be touring:

• College of Charleston, SC (Sept. 1 - Dec. 15, 2010)
• Simon Fraser University Gallery, Burnaby, BC, Canada (Nov. 6 - Dec.17, 2010)
• University of Colorado Museum of Natural History, Boulder, CO (Jan. 10 - April 30, 2011)
• Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art, University of Oregon, Eugene (Jan. 15 - April 10, 2011)
• Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art, University of Oregon, Eugene (Jan. 15 - April 10, 2011)
• Nevada Museum of Art, Reno, NV (April 23 - Aug. 6, 2011)
• International Museum of Art and Science, McAllen, TX (Sept. 1, 2011 - Jan. 1, 2012)
• Sordoni Art Gallery, Wilkes University, Wilkes-Barre, PA (Aug. 29 - Dec. 11, 2011)
• Carleton College Art Gallery, Northfield, MN, (Jan. 6 - March 9, 2012)
• University of New Hampshire, Durham, NH, (Jan. 27 - April 6, 2012)
• Science Museum of Virginia, Richmond, VA, (May 12 - Oct. 14, 2012)