Lightness Becomes

Lightness Becomes is an exhibition that will feature works from Hugo Urrutia, Ruxandra Bocin-Dumitriu, Dylan Martinez, and Chris Wood. Focusing on the dynamic use of illumination within art, each artist in this exhibition incorporates the presence or absence of light into their artwork through lustrous paints, clever refractions, and igniting forms. This exhibition uses dichroic glass, Passepartout, blown glass and oil lacquer to catch and bend light: pulling the room into the artwork and the artwork into deeper dimensionality. These bodies of work remind the viewer of the playful beauty of light and space through the darker days of winter.

Hugo Urrutia is a multidisciplinary artist-designer, interested in the cross-pollination between art and architecture. His work explores and uses technology for design and fabrication, with a sensitive and conscious reminder of the creativity of human endeavor. Urrutia says of his latest series: "Using nature and geometry as a starting point, I am interested in the notion of a wave, a synchronized flock of birds, a silk fabric soothingly moving with the wind. Then I challenge myself to try to mimic these noble forms… [this series] produces a sort of wavy effect in which I can play with the shades and shadows. By cutting a simple rigid colored plane in a precise way, my “canvas” becomes sculptural and organic...”

With a focus on the mind’s deconstruction of visuals, Ruxandra Bocin-Dumitriu also explores the essence of life. Exploring the inextricable beauty of inner thought, Bocin-Dumitriu’s monochromatic reflections bring meaning at the core of being and are, in return, filled with and by it. Her focus on dimension and perception realizes in dreamy landscapes trapped between perception and reality.

The dichotomy of perception versus reality is a major theme in Dylan Martinez’s work. The artist states: “Our vision has the greatest effect on our understanding of the world. Through my artwork, I create scenarios in which the viewer must question their capacity to navigate between reality and illusion.” His glass Water Bags create a vivid illusion. The trapped movement of the rising bubbles and the gesture of the forms convince the eye that the sculptures are just as they appear: bags of water. 

Chris Wood uses a range of high and low-tech optical materials to harness patterns of light that suggest ephemeral glimpses of moments in the natural world. Wood frequently uses dichroic glass has a special optical coating meant to reflect certain wavelengths of light while letting others through. The kinetic patterns she creates directly respond to the environments in which they are placed producing unique palates filled with rainbows of vivid or pastel colors.

Lightness Becomes will open on December 28 and will close on January 31, 2020.

For more information please visit www.artplexgallery.com or email art@artplexgallery.com