James Turrell, Cherry, 1998. Image via Almine Rech Gallery.

Currently on view in Brussels at Almine Rech is the gallery’s first solo exhibition by American artist James Turrell (b. 1943). Since the 1960s, Turrell has created innovative and unconventional installations in which he attempts to sculpt optical perception and “the concrete nature of light,” generating meditative, often-sublime experiences for the viewer.  The works on display represent more than three decades of Turrell’s experimentation with light as a physical material, including examples of his early Projection series, his Apertures, and his more recent engagement with holography.

James Turrell, Acro Red, 1968. Image via Almine Rech.

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James Turrell, “Bridget’s Bardo” (2008) Via DesignBoom

Currently showing at the Kunstmuseum-Wolfsburg  in Germany is an exhibit by Californian artist James Turrell. The exhibit marks the artist’s largest ever walk-through light installation. Situated within a museum context, the structure reaches eleven meters in height — almost touching the museum’s glass roof, and  covers 700 meters of floor area. Entitled “Bridget’s Bardo” the work is inspired by the cosmic qualities of the Roden crater– an extinct volcano in the desert outside of Flagstaff, Arizona and the site of Turrell’s ongoing and most ambitious project of his career.  Turrell has been working on the crater since 1974 in an attempt to turn the subterranean crevice into a kind of artistic observatory where celestial light, in its myriad forms, can be studied and observed. The artist, who works predominantly with light, perception and space, has been working exclusively with the “immaterial” mediums since the 1960’s– continuously exploring the ways in which light interacts with surfaces, colors and spaces while using installation exhibitions to immerse viewers within the resulting visual–and often seemingly tactile– meditative experiences.

James Turrell, “Ganzfeld Piece (model)” 2008 Via DesignBoom

More text, images and related links after the jump….

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