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Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) announces Helen Pashgian: Light Invisible

The Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) presents Helen Pashgian: Light Invisible, the first solo presentation of the Los Angeles–based Light and Space artist at a major museum. The exhibition on view March 30–June 29, 2014 debuts a new large-scale work comprised of 12 two-part columns framed out of molded acrylic, made specifically for LACMA’s presentation. As viewers walk past, around, and between these columnar forms, the sculpture creates an immersive viewing experience that invites meditations on the nature of materials and light.

A pioneer of Southern California’s Light and Space movement, Helen Pashgian (born Pasadena, 1934) was one of a group of Los Angeles–area artists in the late 1960s who recognized that new materials being used both by local industries (aerospace and others) and the local leisure culture (for surfboards and custom cars) could also be used by artists—materials including fiberglass, polyester resin, plastics, and coated glass. In the past few years, Pashgian has created a number of individual columnar sculptures out of shaped sheet acrylic in various colors, including white. Despite their evident simplicity, the sculptures reveal their internal forms only on close inspection. The columnar sculptures seem to hover above the floor as they focus, reflect, and refract light.