Light Art and Profiles of Renowned Light Artists

By David Hakimi, President and Co-Founder, Alcon Lighting and Martin Knop, Artist/Printmaker, Media Arts

Creating art can be transformative and healing, allowing for expression in ways sometimes words can’t or fall short. Experiencing art can be equally cathartic.

Light plays a role in the creation and experience of art. Humans are phototrophic by nature, meaning we grow toward light. Art can use light to create depth, detail and atmosphere and to convey an emotion or to make a statement.

Artists have always used light to emphasize certain aspects of their works of art. How light bathes a basket of fruit, for example, or shines on a pearl earring, can accentuate an artwork’s attributes. The contrast of darkness with light can be alluring. Chiaroscuro, for example, is a technique using a stark contrast between light and dark to create dramatic compositions, most famously used by artists such as Caravaggio, Rembrandt and Goya. In modern and contemporary art, only the medium has changed.

In the 20th century, artists began to use light itself as art. Light art, as it’s come to be known, can take multiple media forms, including sculpture, installation and performance. Installation light artists use color, intensity, filters, angles and shadows to create their works. You may have seen more light art than you realize; neon signs, holographic images projected on a building, abstract light fixtures or light sculptures are all examples. Today, light art is highly sought after in museums as well as commercial and residential spaces, making it a prominent and accessible art form.

Background on light art

Russian artist and designer El Lissitzky works on a set design at the Meyerhold Theater for the 1926 post-revolutionary play “I Want a Baby” by Sergei Tretyakov.

The light bulb was invented in 1879. Yet, it’s believed that an artist named El Lissitzky is the first to have used electrical light in his work—60 years later. One of the first object-based light sculptures was made by László Moholy-Nagy in the 1920s.

Licht-Raum-modulator, or Light Space Modulator, created by Hungarian artist László Moholy-Nagy in 1930.

Light art originated in the 1960s as kinetic, or Lumino kinetic, art. In later forms, some artists used light to create psychedelic experiences. From that movement came minimalism, with artists such as the late Dan Flavin, who worked with fluorescent light tubes, playing with light as it relates to sculpture, movement and various spaces.

Neon came onto the light art scene in the 1980s. Artists began using neon in interior design and sculpture in an effort to push boundaries.

The newest light art trend is projection mapping, which projects video onto an object or wall. When shown against three-dimensional objects, a projected video employs color, light and movement to give the appearance of transforming a static object into something almost lifelike.

Light artists

Many artists have gained notoriety using light as an artistic medium. From public space exhibitions to museum showcases, light art uses everyday encounters to express an experience, a thought or an emotion.

Among artists using light, here are five of the most notable:

Dan Flavin

Following the kinetic movement of the 1960s came the minimalism movement. Dan Flavin pioneered the use of fluorescent lighting tubes in his sculptural and installation light art. Flavin's first professional installation using the fluorescent tube light was in 1963. The work was named "Diagonal of Personal Ecstasy," and it featured a yellow fluorescent placed on a wall at a 45-degree angle from the floor.

Dan Flavin, “Untitled (for Frederika and Ian) 3,” 1987. Pink, yellow, and blue fluorescent light, 183 cm long on the diagonal.

Credit: David Zwirner

Grimanesa Amorós

Peruvian-born Grimanesa Amorós lives and works in New York City as an interdisciplinary artist known for large-scale installations of light sculpture. Amorós first researches the locations, histories and communities of her sites and incorporates various elements from video, lighting and technology to create site-specific installations to engage architecture and create community.

“Ocupante” (2016) was featured at the Ludwig Museum in Berlin, Germany. Amoros explains, “The work seeks to create a space where the viewer becomes the occupant of the museum space. Additionally, “Ocupante” dreams of a world of connection.”

Keith Sonnier

Keith Sonnier is a Postminimalist video and light artist. In 1968, Sonnier created his first artwork using neon. A neon tube is a sealed glass tube with a metal electrode at each end, filled with one of a number of gases at low pressure.

He has been one of the most successful with this technique. Over the years, Sonnier has used incandescent, fluorescent, as well as LED lighting. Sonnier’s pieces tend to include light tubes, aluminum and other objects to create electric light sculptures.

The installation “Keith Sonnier: Until Today” featured more than 30 works from over three decades of Sonnier’s career.

Adela Andea

Romanian-born artist Adela Andea uses LED light and space, magnifying lenses and flexible neon tubes to immerse viewers in a sensory experience.

“A.57” by Adela Andea blends LED, CFL and neon lights supported on a plastic and steel wire frame at the Anya Tish Gallery in Houston, Texas.

James Turrell

Among James Turrell’s pieces is this installation at the Guggenheim Museum in New York, where Turrell used shape and light to immerse the visitor in purple. Turrell demonstrated here that light doesn’t have to be static or displayed on a wall—he shows that light can merely be part of an experience.

“Ondo Pink” is a “Turrell Projection” that focuses light at the corner of a room from the opposite corner, creating a three-dimensional effect with the light.

Light art tells a story

Contemporary artists have leveraged this relatively new technology to play on an age-old fascination humans have with art and light. By experimenting with color and shape and intertwining its existence with outside materials, our public spaces and our museums, light art challenges the way we perceive the things around us. ■