Text by CLOT Magazine
PACE Gallery is presenting its second solo exhibition of new works by James Turrell this month. PACE has represented James Turrell since 2002; this is the gallery’s ninth exhibition of Turrell’s works.
Turell’s work is influenced by the notion of phenomenology in pictorial art. In his earliest work, he focused the dialectic between constructing light and painting with it, building on the sensorial experience of space, colour, and perception. These interactions evolved into an investigation of the immateriality of light itself. His exhibition at PACE features three new works from the Constellation series staged in site-designed chambers.
The works will feature elliptical and circular shapes with a frosted glass surface animated by an array of technically advanced LED lights mounted to a wall and generated by a computer program. The light changes are subtle and hypnotic, one colour morphing into the next. The programme runs on a loop that is imperceptible to the viewer, prompting a transcendental experience. With these new works, Turrell continues his exploration of technological possibilities combined with sensory practices and gradient colours.
To some degree, to control light I have to have a way to form it, so I use form almost like the stretcher bar of a canvas… When I prepare walls, I make them so perfect that you actually don’t pay attention to them. This is true of the architecture of form I use: I am interested in the form of the space and the form of territory, of how we consciously inhabit space, says James Turrell.
The exhibition is organised in collaboration with Kayne Griffin Corcoran and will be on view from February 11 to March 27, with an opening reception on February 10, 2020.
