Keith Sonnier Keith Sonnier is a Postminimalist video and light artist. In 1968, Sonnier created his first artwork using neon. A neon tube is a sealed glass tube with a metal electrode at each end, filled with one of a number of gases at low pressure. He has been one of the most successful with this technique. Over the years, Sonnier has used incandescent, fluorescent, as well as LED lighting. Sonnier’s pieces tend to include light tubes, aluminum and other objects to create electric light sculptures.
The installation “Keith Sonnier: Until Today” featured more than 30 works from over three decades of Sonnier’s career.
Adela Andea Romanian-born artist Adela Andea uses LED light and space, magnifying lenses and flexible neon tubes to immerse viewers in a sensory experience.
“A.57” by Adela Andea blends LED, CFL and neon lights supported on a plastic and steel wire frame at the Anya Tish Gallery in Houston, Texas.
James Turrell Among James Turrell’s pieces is this installation at the Guggenheim Museum in New York, where Turrell used shape and light to immerse the visitor in purple. Turrell demonstrated here that light doesn’t have to be static or displayed on a wall—he shows that light can merely be part of an experience. “Ondo Pink” is a “Turrell Projection” that focuses light at the corner of a room from the opposite corner, creating a threedimensional effect with the light.
Light art tells a story Contemporary artists have leveraged this relatively new technology to play on an age-old fascination humans have
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designing lighting
with art and light. By experimenting with color and shape and intertwining its existence with outside materials, our public spaces and our museums, light art challenges the way we perceive the things around us. ■