Leo Villareal (review)

This lavishly produced, large-format, coffee-table-style book is essentially the catalogue that accompanies the major representative exhibition of Villareal's art. This exhibition has been organized by the San José Museum of Art, where it showed from August 2010 to January 2011. Then it moved on to the Nevada Museum of Art, Reno; Nerman Museum of Contemporary Art, Kansas; and Telfair Museum of Art, Georgia.

Leo Villareal, now 40 years of age, established a significant place in the art world during his 30s. He works exclusively with light. In the early years he used strobe lights and fluorescent tubes with various forms of controllers and rudimentary computer programs. He now works almost entirely with light-emitting diodes (LEDs) controlled by sophisticated computer code, which he programs himself or in some cases collaborates on with other computer programmers. His works vary from small gallery pieces to huge public installations comprising hundreds of thousands of LEDs. The effect of these pieces is simply stunning. As Michael Rush notes, "Villareal conjures the heavens and offers us passage into the fabric of the universe in his increasingly immersive light sculptures." Walking through Thresholdor Multiverse"brings us as close as we can get to walking through the sky" (p. 37).

The book, as one would expect, is full of color photos and plates. These show finished works in situ, shots of pieces under construction in Villareal's studio, and sequential shots of many of the pieces. These sequences are an attempt to give the reader an idea of just what the dynamic, changing light sculptures look like in reality. Unfortunately, even this strategy does not do justice to the ever-changing play of light that emanates from the actual sculptures. This is not a criticism of the book; it simply highlights the perennial problems of adequately representing immersive, conceptual and interactive artwork in the static medium of print. As an example of the in situphotograph of the work, Hivelooks like a rectangular panel with numerous square orange lights—quite dead. The sequence photos on the following page show just how dynamic and amazing this work is when in action, so to speak (Plates 40--41).

After the introductory Forward by Susan Krane, there are five essays followed by Plates, Biography & Documentation, and Catalogue of the Exhibition.

1. 1. Steven B. Johnson, "Introduction: The Work of Art in the Age of Algorithms"

2. 2. JoAnne Northrup, "Animating Light"

3. 3. Michael Rush, "Leo Villareal: Code as Medium"

4. 4. Mark Van Proyen, "The Cybernetic Construction of Social Space: Leo Villareal and the Disorient Projects at Black Rock City [Burning Man Festival]"

5. 5. Sara Douglas Hart, "Leo Villareal: Play of Brilliants"

JoAnne Northrup is chief curator of the San Jose Gallery, and her essay "Animating Light" is a detailed study of Villareal's career, from his first studies at Yale through to his present highly regarded status as a dedicated, innovative and important artist.

I particularly enjoyed Rush's illuminating essay, where he discusses the various manifestations of code behind the artworks, both that of Villareal and of other artists who work with light programmed to draw the viewers out of themselves into an ethereal world. Van Proyen, in his essay, discusses the Burning Man Festival and the impact that this has had on the development of Villareal's work. Villareal produces site-specific artworks each year at Burning Man; some of these are then recycled into other works in various locations in America.

Hart's essay "Play of Brilliants" discusses the relationship of art to architecture and especially the way Villareal works with architects at the conceptual stage of building design. This results in art that is not just a decoration, in or on the building, but an integral part of dynamics of the architectural impact. A fantastic example of this collaboration is evident in Sky, Villareal's work as part of the building at Tampa Museum of Art, Tampa, Florida (p...