Light and Landscape at Storm King Art Center
May 12–November 11, 2012
Old Pleasant Hill Road
Mountainville, NY 12553
T 845 534 3115
Storm king presents contemporary art that explores creative and conceptual possibilities of natural light.
Storm King Art Center presents a special exhibition devoted to contemporary art in which natural light is both a primary medium and a conceptual focus. Light and Landscape, organized by Associate Curator Nora Lawrence, encompasses 25 works by 14 artists who use a variety of strategies to engage with light as a central component of their art. Encompassing sculpture, installation, works on paper, and video, the works encourage viewers to contemplate not only their natural surroundings and the effects of sunlight, but also the vast impact of light on our daily lives and ecosystem.
Artists represented in the exhibition are Matthew Buckingham, Peter Coffin, Olafur Eliasson, Spencer Finch, Katie Holten, Roni Horn, Donald Judd, Anish Kapoor, William Lamson, Anthony McCall, Katie Paterson, Tobias Putrih, Alyson Shotz, and Diana Thater. Their work will be installed across Storm King’s 500 acres of hills, fields, and woodlands—interspersed with the Art Center’s permanent collection—and in the Museum Building.
Works installed outdoors include Spencer Finch‘s 2011 Lunar, a “lunar lander” that comprises a solar-powered element resembling a geodesic dome, perched atop the landing structure. During the evening, the dome glows the exact color of the light of the full moon as measured in Chicago, where the work was first shown, in July 2011.
For Untitled (Bees Making Honey), Peter Coffin built an apiary; a beekeeper will give tours every Saturday, explaining the importance of bees to the ecosystem and the ways in which honeybees use the sun to communicate and navigate. Participants will receive a sample of local honey.
Tobias Putrih has fashioned a large, organically shaped sculpture for the exhibition. Made of monofilament wire attached to an armature, White City, Corner Entrance filters ambient light. The artist has referred to this work, which defines the space it occupies with minimal material and weight, as “disappearing architecture.”
Another outdoor work, William Lamson‘s Last Light, illuminates and traces a ray of sunlight as it penetrates a pond, thanks to a reflective, triangular form submerged in the shallow pond. Visible to bystanders, it is positioned at an angle matching that of the sun at the summer solstice, providing a reference point for the angle of the sun on other days, thereby indicating seasonal changes in the sun’s position.
Roni Horn‘s mesmerizing Untitled (“…it was a mask, but the real face was identical to the false one.”) is sited indoors. Dating from 2009/10, this solid, cast-glass sculpture has a top that has been fire-polished to make it as shiny and smooth as liquid. As it is installed with no artificial light, the color of both the sculpture and the floor beneath it change continually, depending on the quality of sunlight entering the gallery. It is installed alongside photographs from her series Untitled (Weather), multipart photographic portraits of a single subject across time and under shifting natural light.
Anthony McCall‘s 1972 video Landscape for Fire documents a performance in which McCall and members of the British art collective Exit, having placed flammable material in a grid pattern in a field, set each on fire following a predetermined score.
Katie Holten‘s Timeline (A Light History of the Earth) enables visitors to peruse books about the history of natural light, either in the Museum Building or outdoors, in specially designed chairs with books stored alongside them.
Light and Landscape is made possible by generous lead support from The Samuel Freeman Charitable Trust. Additional support is provided by BEAM Contemporary Art, Janet Inskeep Benton, The Donald R. Mullen Family Foundation, and the Toby D. Lewis Philanthropic Fund of the Jewish Federation of Cleveland.
For admission and transportation information, visit www.stormking.org.
Press contacts
For additional information or visual materials, please contact Libby Mark at Jeanne Collins & Associates, LLC, New York City: 646 486 7050 or info@jcollinsassociates.com.
*Image above:
Spencer Finch, Lunar, 2011. Two solar panels with charger, light-emitting diodes, and lamp fixture, lead, aluminum, stainless steel, and polycarbonate. 11 ft 4 in x 16 ft 8 in x 11 ft 6 in.
Courtesy the artist and Rhona Hoffman Gallery, Chicago.
Storm King Art Center.
Photo: Jerry L. Thompson.