James Turrell, A New Big Exhibition In Paris

2 years ago

The renowned artist of the Light and Space movement, James Turrell, will present a new solo exhibition, entitled At One, at the Gagosian Gallery in Le Bourget, Paris, opening on 14 October. This exhibition is one of the most comprehensive reviews of Turrell’s work in Europe over the past twenty-five years and includes a wide range of installations and archival materials that explore the ‘materiality’ of light.

Central to the exhibition are two new large-scale installations: ‘Ganzfeld, All Clear’ and ‘Wedgework, Either Or’, both made in 2024. In addition, some of Turrell’s earliest projection works, such as ‘Shanta, Red’ (1968) and ‘Afrum Again’ (2024), will be on display, along with six new works from the Glassworks series, offering a comprehensive overview of the artist’s creative evolution.

More on James Turrell

Turrell, a pioneer in the use of light as an artistic medium, achieved fame in the 1960s when, together with artists such as Dan Flavin and Robert Irwin, he pushed the boundaries of traditional painting and sculpture. His work plays with perceptual phenomena, often prompting viewers to question the boundaries between physical space and optical illusion.

The exhibition in Paris and the Ganzfeld effect

The centrepiece of the Paris exhibition is ‘Ganzfeld, All Clear’, which immerses visitors in a room where the boundaries of space seem to dissolve. Inside the completely white pavilion, coloured light seems to erase any sense of depth or orientation, evoking feelings similar to skiing in zero visibility or being enveloped in clouds. The term ‘Ganzfeld’ refers to the visual effect that occurs when the brain, bereft of spatial reference points, fills the void with imaginary shapes.

The exhibition then offers six new works from the Glassworks series, which relate to the work recently exhibited by James Turrell at the Gagosian Gallery in Athens. The exhibition also includes holograms, aquatints and woodcuts, which explore the artist’s studies on light and perception, with references to his 2014 monumental installation, Aten Reign, exhibited at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York.

With ‘At One’, Turrell invites the public to immerse themselves in his world, where light is not only an instrument of illumination, but is itself the medium of revelation. The exhibition will be open from 14 October 2024 until June 2025, offering a deep dive into the artist’s ongoing exploration of light, space and human perception.