Release Date: September 5, 2008

Largest, Most Complex Light Sculpture by Leo Villareal Debuts at National Gallery of Art, Washington

Leo Villareal programs Multiverse (2008), a new light sculpture that he created for the underground walkway between the East and West Buildings of the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC.

Washington, DC—(Updated December 19, 2008) Multiverse, the largest and most complex light sculpture created by American artist Leo Villareal (b. 1967) may now be experienced by visitors as they pass through the Concourse walkway between the East and West Buildings of the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC. Commissioned by the Gallery and on view for one year, the work features approximately 41,000 computer-programmed LED nodes that run through channels along the entire 200-foot-long space. The development of this LED (light–emitting diode) project began three years ago and the installation created by Villareal specifically for this location began last September.

"Multiverse creates an exuberant and mesmerizing environment which transforms the experience of its space, and several thousand visitors to the Gallery have seen this very special installation by Leo Villareal since it was debuted in late November," said Earl A. Powell III, director, National Gallery of Art. “We are extremely grateful to the board members who generously funded this project, to the members of our staff who worked diligently on it over the last three years, and to Leo for creating this beautiful work.”

Support

Multiverse is generously funded by Victoria and Roger Sant and by Sharon and Jay Rockefeller. Philanthropists Victoria P. Sant, president of the Gallery, and Sharon P. Rockefeller, president and CEO of WETA, are Gallery trustees and members of the Collectors Committee, a group of leading collectors from across the country who support the Gallery’s acquisition of modern and contemporary art. The sculpture, on loan from the artist, courtesy of Conner Contemporary Art, is scheduled to remain on view until November 2009.

Installation

Villareal’s work features movement and light, qualities that make this installation particularly well-suited for the Gallery’s underground walkway, an area through which thousands of people pass daily. Once the appropriate hardware was installed in the existing architecture, the artist programmed sequences through his custom-designed software to create abstract configurations of light. His programming both instructs the lights and allows for an element of chance. While it is possible that a pattern will repeat during a viewer’s experience, it is highly unlikely. Still, the eye will seek patterns in the motion, a perceptual effect of the hypnotic trailing lights.

The project was overseen by Molly Donovan, associate curator in the department of modern and contemporary art, National Gallery of Art.

Overview

Throughout the last four decades, a growing number of artists have explored the use of light to frame and create spaces in the built environment. These include Dan Flavin’s space-defining fluorescent light sculptures, James Turrell’s color-saturated voids, Jenny Holzer’s LED-generated texts, and Felix Gonzales-Torres’ strings of lightbulbs. While Villareal’s art acknowledges these artistic forbearers, his concepts relate most closely to the instructional wall drawings of Sol LeWitt and the systems of Peter Halley’s paintings.

The Artist

Born in 1967 in Albuquerque, NM, Villareal began experimenting with light, sound, and video while studying set design and sculpture at Yale University, where he received his BA. He earned his MPS in the design of new media, computational media, and embedded computing from New York University’s pioneering interactive telecommunications program at the Tisch School of the Arts. He also learned the programming skills that enable him to push LED technology far past familiar commercial applications.

Based in New York, Villareal has been included in solo and group exhibitions, and has made numerous site-specific commissions throughout the world, at major cultural institutions such as P.S.1 MoMA, New York; Brooklyn Academy of Music; Albright Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, NY; and the Nerman Museum of Contemporary Art, Overland Park, KS.

Site-Specific Commissions at the National Gallery of Art

Recently, the Gallery commissioned another site-specific work—Roof (2004–2005)—a sculpture created by British artist Andy Goldsworthy consisting of nine stacked-slate hollow domes with centered oculi located along the north perimeter of the East Building.