James Turrell, Logos (97) Medium Glass Circle (2017), via Kayne Grifffin Corcoran

Kayne Griffin Corcoran Los Angeles is currently exhibiting a selection of new and historic works by James Turrell, including four unique glass works, together with his Autonomous Structures series, a as well as models and prototypes of architectural spaces made between 1989 and 1991. The works on view epitomize his ongoing conversation with light in a retrospective that looks back on the last fifty years through a focused group of pieces. Light and space become a mode of understanding space and time, echoing the circumstances of perception, and building an architecture in its own right. The viewer perceives his sites only through consciousness, with light functioning as an interior mirror reflecting the spatial and temporal depths of one’s seeing, and the presence within space. “I’ve always wanted to make a light that looks like the light you see in your dream,” Turrell says. “Because the way that light infuses the dream, the way the atmosphere is colored, the way light rains off people…we don’t normally see light like that. But we all know it.” Turrell does not aim at bringing the viewer to a dazed, exotic zone; he wants to recall this other dimension we know innately.  (more…)

James Turrell installed one of his signature lighting systems in Berlin’s Dorotheenstadt Cemetery chapel this summer, playing a series of changing light arrangements against the fading light at dusk each night.   (more…)

James Turrell’s Meeting, one of MoMA PS1‘s permanent installations, will reopen this summer, Klaus Biesenbach announced this week.  The reopening after an extensive renovation will ring in the 40th anniversary of the opening of PS1.   (more…)

James Turrell is interviewed in The Guardian this week, discussing his recent work, and the legion of people who have recently discovered his work thanks to Drake’s “Hotline Bling” music video.  “I’m sort of astonished by it, I have to say. It’s humbling that more people have probably heard about me through this than anything else,” he says. (more…)

Following a number of comparisons to the work of James Turrell, rapper Drake’s “Hotline Bling” video has finally been addressed by the artist, who seems to have taken the homage of his pale, colored light installations with something of a sense of humor.  “I wish to make clear that neither I nor any of my woes was involved in any way in the making of the Hotline Bling video,” he said through a blog post from his lawyer. (more…)

Hedge Fund Manager and Collector Bruce Berkowitz, of Fairholme Capital Management, has reportedly scrapped a proposal for a ten-story office building, which featured public exhibition of works by Richard Serra and James Turrell, in Miami, following fines and a reported lack of attention from City Hall.  “There are no ongoing discussions and the only thing I’ve heard from the city is that I’ve been fined $300,000 for the way we cleared and secured the lot.” (more…)

Artist James Turrell is among the group of recipients for the National Medal of Arts this week, alongside Linda Ronstadt, dancer-choreographer Bill T. Jones, author Maxine Hong Kingston, and Broadway composer John Kander.  The group will be presented with the award by President Barack Obama. (more…)

James Turrell, Sensing Thought (2005), via Pace

Following his massive, three-museum retrospective last summer, artist James Turrell returns to the gallery circuit this spring, with a selection of recent works on view at Pace Gallery’s London location in Burlington Gardens.  The show offers a continuation of Turrell’s interest in light as a mediator of space, using LED lights to create shifting, intriguing alterations of depth in a closed room.

James Turrell, Recent Works (Installation View), via Pace (more…)

James Turrell, Breathing Light, (2013) Courtesy Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Copyright James Turrell. Photo copyright Florian Holzherr.

Part of his three-museum, nationwide retrospective, James Turell lights up LACMA with a retrospective that exhibits works from the artist’s nearly fifty-year career.  Extending across an entire wing of the Resnick Pavilion, and an entire floor in the Broad building, the exhibition is easily the heaviest concentration of works by Turrell in one place that one could hope to see in a lifetime.  Loosely chronological, the show begins with a projection work from the first years of Turrell’s light experiments, and ends with an immersive environment created this year.  These works, Afrum (White) (1966) and Breathing Light (2013), provoke pure wonderment, emphasizing the device central to Turrell’s artistic investigations: that the work itself doesn’t necessarily exist in the space, but within the viewer’s experience, moving through the work.

James Turrell, Afrum (White), (1966), Courtesy Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Copyright James Turrell. Photo copyright Florian Holzherr. (more…)

James Turrell, Tycho White: Single Wall Projection, (1967), Courtesy the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, © James Turrell

Part of his ongoing retrospective spanning three cities and upwards of 92,000 square feet of exhibition space, American artist James Turrell has brought several of his iconic light installations to the Museum of Fine Arts in Houston.  Serving as the way station between the Guggenheim’s “blockbuster” exhibition of Turrell’s Aten Reign, and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art’s blowout review of Turrell’s nearly fifty years of work, the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston offers a subdued, yet cohesive addition to the national celebration of one of America’s pioneering light and space artists. (more…)

James Turrell, Aten Reign (2013) (Installation View) © James Turrell, Photo: David Heald © Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation, New York

The highly anticipated James Turrell exhibition at the Guggenheim Museum, which opened last month, and remains on view through the summer, has renewed the ongoing debate surrounding contemporary artworks of Disney-esque proportions, especially considering whether or not these spectacle-inducing affairs are worthy of the attention they often command. Like his ongoing work-in-progress, Rodin Crater (a massive naked-eye observatory built within an ancient crater near Flagstaff, Arizona), Turrell’s multi-venue comeback is not exactly a modest undertaking, with concurrent exhibitions on view at The Los Angeles County Museum of Art and The Museum of Fine Arts in Houston. At the Guggenheim, Turrell joins Matthew Barney, Nam June Paik, Maurizio Cattelan, and others who have mediated Frank Lloyd Wright’s iconic rotunda through Turrell’s site specific Aten Reign, which uses an ingenious system of stretched fabrics and LED lights to create the illusion of billowing clouds of color that unfold in concentric rings through the rising levels, with visitors invited to watch the dizzying light show from the rotunda floor. Four other historical projected light works, three of which date to the 1960s, are also on view in adjacent galleries along with a selection of thirteen aquatints that, with expert lighting and position, appear to emit a soft glow. However, it is Aten Reign that has generated the most buzz, both good and bad.

James Turrell, Aten Reign (2013) (Installation View) © James Turrell, Photo: David Heald © Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation, New York  (more…)

A light installation by James Turrell has been uncovered in a Malibu Beach House, the Wall Street Journal reports.  The work had sat dormant in the guest house of late art collector Sydney Goldfarb’s Malibu home, and was uncovered when resident Tobey Cotsen visited Turrell’s current show at LACMA, where she realized that she had a Turrell of her own.  The work has since been confirmed by the artist’s studio.  “Where have I seen that before?” She said to herself during the exhibition. “I’ve seen it in my house.” (more…)

James Turrell, Prado, Red (1968), Courtesy of Almine Rech

James Turrell is a pioneer in perceptual art using light as his medium, and Almine Rech Paris, capitalizing on the artist’s current nationwide exhibition in his native United States, is currently presenting  his seventh exhibition in its gallery. Shown across three rooms, this collection offers insight into Turrell’s celestial inspiration for his abstract pieces.

James Turrell (Installation View), Courtesy of Almine Rech (more…)

James Turrell, Roden Crater (Sunset) (2009), via Kayne Griffin Corcoran

With concurrent shows opening at LACMA, the Guggenheim, and the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, James Turrell is certainly in the spotlight this summer. The Kayne Corcoran Griffin gallery is also joining in on the artist’s ubiquity, filling its new space on south La Brea with an exhibition focused on the Roden Crater project. Aptly named Sooner Than Later, Roden Crater, the show examines Turrell’s unfinished transformation of the crater into a sight-specific masterwork that has been in development since 1974. (more…)

A James Turrell installation at the Nasher Sculpture Center in Dallas has been declared destroyed by the artist, following the construction of a 40-story luxury condominium tower that obscured the view of the original work. Tending (Blue), part of the artist’s Skyspace series, was subsequently closed, with a sign on the front reading: “Because a clear view of the sky from the interior of Tending (Blue) is now obstructed by Museum Tower, the artist, James Turrell, has declared the work destroyed. Turrell has created a new design for a skyspace on this site, which will eliminate Museum Tower from the viewer’s line of sight.” (more…)

The New York Times has published an extensive profile on artist James Turrell in advance of his three museum retrospective opening this summer at the Guggenheim Museum, LACMA, and the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, occupying 92,000 square feet in total, with some of Turrell’s most striking visual illusions and light works.  Profiling the artist’s career and body of work, the article covers the full range of Turrell’s discipline, including his massive project at Roden Crater.  “It has become, even unfinished, as important as any artwork ever made,” LACMA director Michael Govan said. “I know I’m going out on a limb here a little bit, but I think it’s one of the most ambitious artworks ever attempted by a single human being.” (more…)

Artist James Turrell recently spoke with the Financial Times as he prepares for his three museum retrospective at LACMA, the Guggenheim Museum, and the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, as well as a solo show at LA’s Kayne Griffin Corcoran space. The artist is still vigorously involved in his Roden Crater Project, as well as his early career in Los Angeles. “I would describe Los Angeles as actually not having taste. In New York there’s taste. But you have to remember that taste is censorship. It’s a form of restriction.” In Los Angeles, he said, “there wasn’t any party line so you could do what you wanted.”

(null)

Artist James Turrell will open three shows in the next month, bringing his light works to viewers nation wide.  The artist has major retrospectives scheduled to open at the Guggenheim, LACMA, and the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston.  The ambitious series exhibitions has called for challenging constructions at the museums, recreating spaces from Turrell’s exacting specifications.  “We have trained our dry-wallers that they are working with art, not drywall,” says Bradley Johnson, chief architect for the construction project at LACMA.  (more…)

James Turrell, Roden Crater (Sunset) (2009), via PACE Gallery

In anticipation of his major, three-museum retrospective beginning next month in New York, Los Angeles and Houston, artist James Turrell is exhibiting a selection of mocels, photographs and designs from his ongoing Roden Crater Project at PACE Gallery’s 57th Street location.  Offering a complex portrait of the artist’s ambitious creative site, the show presents a look at Roden Crater as Turrell moves into the next stage of its construction.

James Turrell, Roden Crater and Autonomous Structures (Installation View), via PACE Gallery

(more…)

Maria Gutierrez and Gabriel Orozco

All photos by C. Daleli for ArtObserved

The 2012 Guggenheim International Gala took place Thursday, November 8th in celebration of Picasso: Black and White organized by Carmen Giménez. Guests were able to view artworks for the upcoming benefit auction at Sotheby’s on November 13-14th with lots by Gabriel Orozco, Georg Baselitz, Roy Lichtenstein, Richard Prince, and James Turrell, among others. Funds raised at the gala and auction are in support of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation.

Atmosphere

(more…)

–>
FIAC 2011 at the Grand Palais in Paris. All photos on site for Art Observed by Caroline Claisse.

FIAC 2011 (The Foire Internationale d’Art Contemporain) opens this weekend in Paris for its 38th year. The international art fair, which boasts an impressive array of 168 galleries from 21 countries, will show the work of some 2,800+ artists. Running October 20–23rd, the exposition comes at the tail end of Frieze Art Fair, drawing artists, collectors, gallerists, and enthusiasts eastward from London. While the focus of Frieze leans toward contemporary, FIAC includes both contemporary and modern, including works from Picasso, Calder, and Matisse. The fair has been building momentum since 2006; Jennifer Flay, appointed general director in 2010, credits this boost to the fair’s move to the Grand Palais, one of the city’s most cherished architectural gems. The fair also expands this year to the Jardin des Tuileries, the Jardin des Plantes, the Museum of Natural History, and other venues around the city. Another innovation, a mobile application (in French) is available through Windows Phone which enables visitors to book tickets directly from their phone, as well as receive realtime news updates from the fair, find exhibitors and artists, and access videos and photos of the show.

–>
Jay Jopling of White Cube, which is exhibiting Damien Hirst’s Where Will It End.

More on site coverage and images after the jump… (more…)

James Turrell, Carn White (1967). Photo on site for Art Observed by Megan Hoetger.

The James Turrell exhibition, Present Tense, is currently showing at Kayne Griffin Corcoran in Santa Monica. Presented in conjunction with the Pacific Standard Time (PST) programming, the exhibition includes some of Turrell’s most recognizable works, ranging from the 1960s to today. Although the official opening weekend of PST is the first weekend in October, many participating galleries across Los Angeles have already begun to open their doors to exhibitions, many which explore the development of an art capital in Los Angeles from 1945 to 1980. In addition to the solo exhibition at Kayne Griffin Corcoran, Turrell’s work will also be included in historical group shows, including Phenomenal: California Light, Space, Surface at the Museum of Contemporary Art, San Diego, and Best Kept Secret: UCI and the Development of Contemporary Art in Southern California, 1964-1971 at the Laguna Art Museum in Laguna Beach.  As the list of exhibitions makes clear, Turrell’s work is some of the most important to come out of the Los Angeles scene since its early years in the 1960s. And indeed the sparse but powerful installations on view at the gallery deliver all that we would expect of such an influential body of work.

More text and images after the jump…
(more…)

James Turrell, Aloka’s Flower (2009), photo by Florian Holzherr, via Garage Center.

American artist James Turrell’s first exhibition in Russia is a retrospective at Moscow’s Garage Center for Contemporary Culture. The exhibition consists of works that span Turrell’s long career, from early pieces to a site-specific piece, ‘Purusa.’  The exhibition is curated by the former director of the Henry Art Gallery at the University of Washington, Richard Andrews.

More text and images after the jump… (more…)

All photos by Caroline Claisse for Art Observed.

One of the biggest official collateral events of the 54th Venice Biennale is “Venice in Venice.” The exhibition’s fill title is “Venice in Venice: Glow & Reflection – Venice California Art from 1960 to the Present,” organized by Foundation 20 21 and taking place June 1st – July 31st at Palazzo Contarini Dagli Scrigni. Curated by Tim Nye and Jaqueline Miro, the exhibition include works by seminal Southern California artists Peter Alexander, John Altoon, Charles Arnoldi, Billy Al Bengston, Larry Bell, Tony Berlant, Wallace Berman, Vija Celmins, Bruce Conner, Ron Cooper, Mary Corse, Laddie John Dill, Joe Goode, Robert Graham, George Herms, Robert Irwin, Craig Kauffman, John McCracken, Ed Moses,Kenneth Price, Ed Ruscha, and James Turrell.

Curator Jacqueline Miro, Director of the Getty Image Research Institute Andrew Perchuk, and artists exhibiting in the Venice in Venice show.

More text and images after the jump… (more…)