What you see is never all you see – nor
is what you see all there is to see.
Peter Frank, Los Angeles, 1996
LARRY BELL, New Works
14 March – 19 April, 2008
Opening reception: Thursday 13 March 2008
Opening on March 13, 2008, Seiler + Mosseri-Marlio Galerie is pleased to present an exhibition of new works by American artist Larry Bell. This will be the artist’s first solo exhibition in Zurich, and will inaugurate Seiler + Mosseri-Marlio Galerie at Bleicherweg 33, Zurich.
Since the mid-1960s, Larry Bell (b. 1939) has been a key figure in the conceptual expansion of abstract art. A member of important movements in Southern California at that time such as “Light and Space” and “Finish Fetish”, he has often been associated with Minimalism. Yet other than Minimalist sculptors, who worked contemporaneously in New York, Larry Bell was interested less in literal, material objects than in the nature of viewer’s perception.
Best known for his glass cubes – the glass has been treated in a vacuum chamber where metal alloys are vaporized and adhere to the surface to subtly manipulate the level of transparency and opacity – Larry Bell’s work devotes itself to light and the perceptible volume of light. While the shape of the cube carves out a precisely defined space, the light that radiates and reflects from them becomes a continuum of its surrounding space. The environment, including the viewer, become part of the scenario and adds to the illusion. Exchange and interchange between light and form, light and space, light and viewer and light and light enter into an infinite circuit. Marcel Duchamp’s dictum “the viewer completes the work of art” translates into the perception of the viewer and determines the relative visibility of the artwork: “what you see is never only what you see, may not be what you see from one moment to the next, nor is what you see all there is to see” (Peter Frank, Larry Bell – Understanding the Percept, LA 1996).
At Seiler + Mosseri-Marlio Galerie, Larry Bell will be showing four of his latest 12-inch cubes, all of them created in 2008. Placed on plexiglas pedestals, the cubes seem to be floating in space. Seen from different angles or over the period of time, the sculptures will be subtly transformed.
Also on show will be recent works on paper, called Mirage Paintings. Applying the same vacuum coating process he constructs collages of coated materials, strips of mylar and film laminate that are then arranged and laminated, resulting in tapestries of woven light differentials. Larry Bell plays through the entire color palette, allowing some paintings to radiate bold, iridescent and enigmatic colors, while others transmit muted and delicate hues. Operating on the same promise as the cubes they question the nature of perception – their appearance depending on ambient light and the viewer’s angle, precipitating an illusion, that is a mirage.
Larry Bell has shown in a multitudinous of solo and group exhibitions in museums and galleries worldwide. His works are represented in major public collections, including the Museum of Modern Art, New York; Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York; The Menil Collection, Houston; Tate Gallery, London; Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam and Centre George Pompidou, Paris. Recent exhibitions include a solo show at Pace/Wildenstein Gallery New York and group show “The Los Angeles Art Scene: 1955-1985,” at the Centre Pompidou, Paris, in 2006.
For information, please contact the gallery at +41 43 243 0380 or mail@semoma.com
