The work of James Turrell will be on show at Pace London from 7 February to 5 April 2014. This is the gallery’s sixth exhibition of his work following his concurrent museum exhibitions at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York, Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA, on view until 6 April 2014), and Museum of Fine Arts, Houston.
For over three decades, Turrell has used light and indeterminate space — not objects, nor images — to ex- tend and enhance perception. Turrell’s inspiration draws from astronomy, physics, architecture and theology.
Turrell’s first solo exhibition at Pace London features two never-before-seen works from the Wide Glass series staged in site-designed chambers on the ground floor of the gallery. Works from this series were re- cently included in the LACMA’s exhibition. Each Wide Glass work is unique and features an aperture with a frosted and curved glass surface animated by an array of sophisticated LED lights. With these new works, Turrell continues his exploration of technological possibilities combined with sensory practices, and invites the viewer to a meditative experience.
“I am really interested in the qualities of one space sensing another. It is like looking at someone looking. Objectivity is gained by being once removed. As you plumb a space with vision, it is possible to ‘see your- self see’. This seeing, this plumbing, imbues space with consciousness.” James Turrell.
Also displayed in the exhibition are two works from the Tall Glass series: Sojourn (2006), presented in the downstairs gallery between the two Wide Glass works, and Sensing Thought (2005), upstairs. Each piece from this series is constructed to create a tangible and physical plane of light. The artist has likened the processional development of colours to a musical system utilising themes and gradient tones. The physical construction of these works relates to the earlier series entitled Shallow Space Constructions from the late 1960s and early 1970s.
James Turrell (b. 1943, Los Angeles) attended Pomona College, where his studies concentrated on psy- chology and mathematics. Since 1966, he has created art works made primarily out of light. In 1973 he received a Master’s degree in Art from Claremont Graduate School. His work is represented in international public collections including the Tate Modern, London; Los Angeles County Museum of Art; Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York; Whitney Museum, New York; Chichu Art Museum, Naoshima Island, Japan; The Museum of Modern Art, New York; and the Israel Museum, Jerusa- lem. The James Turrell Museum opened in Colomé, Argentina in 2009. His solo exhibitions include Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam (1976); Whitney Museum of American Art, New York (1980); Israel Museum (1982); Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles (1984); MAK, Vienna (1998–99); Mattress Factory, Pittsburgh (2002–03); and Kunstmuseum Wolfsburg, Germany (2009–10). In 2011, Pace and the Garage Center for Contemporary Art organized a major retrospective of Turrell’s work in Moscow.
In May and June 2013, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA), the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston (MFAH), and the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York concurrently presented three separate ex- hibitions highlighting the achievements of James Turrell. Independently curated by each presenting institu- tion, the three simultaneous and complementary exhibitions together offered a full sense of Turrell’s oeuvre, and explored different facets of his five-decade career. Audiences at all three exhibitions were able to see and experience an unprecedented range of his work—from a retrospective in Los Angeles, to work from the extensive permanent collection and commissions in Houston, to a monumental site-specific installation in New York. The LACMA exhibition was on view from 26 May – 4 April 2013; the MFAH exhibition from 9 June – 22 September 2013; and the Guggenheim exhibition from 21 June – 25 September