ACE GALLERY BEVERLY HILLS

9430 WILSHIRE BOULEVARD · BEVERLY HILLS · CALIFORNIA · 90212 TEL 310.858.9090 · WWW.ACEGALLERY.NET

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HELEN PASHGIAN 1966 – PRESENT

OPENING TUESDAY, JULY 15, 2014| 7 – 9PM EXHIBITION ON VIEW THROUGH AUGUST 2014

Helen Pashgian’s ethereal art objects present tension between visual and cognitive perception. Identified by her enigmatic refractory light sources, which appear to transform when the viewer moves around them, Pashgian’s imprint on the historical merit of the movement is significant. Along with other artists working in in the late sixties such as , Robert Irwin, , DeWain Valentine, Larry Bell, and Peter Alexander, Pashgian has investigated the transformative properties of light for close to fifty years. This exhibition encompasses a choice collection of Pashgian’s exploratory works from 1966 to the present.

Helen Pashgian began working with industrial materials in the 1960s, using cast resin to examine light in solid form. During a residency at Caltech in 1970 – 1971, she began experimenting with larger forms including a 60” diameter disc, which mysteriously vanished during her resident exhibition. With her subsequent mastery of other experimental, industrial media, Pashgian’s oeuvre expanded to include wall-mounted sculptures and free-standing columns.

While meticulously constructed, Pashgian’s artwork shows no trace of the artist’s hand at work; instead, it concentrates on the final impression creating a tension between visual and cognitive perception. With the understanding of the catalytic reactions performed by her materials and via painstaking sanding and polishing, Pashgian achieves surfaces that are immaculate enough to draw focus beyond physical material toward the visual effects of light and color. In her own words: “I’m hoping that the presence of these pieces will slow the viewer down, and by moving around them, will observe how they change. That’s the beauty of light.”1

Pashgian’s recent series of eight-foot tall freestanding columns take the form of vertical double- ellipses. Every column acts as conjoined twins, which elliptically fall in and out of each other. By making these sculptures large-scale, Pashgian has created a multitude of angles with which to play with light. At times, the columns are pure, self-supporting, luminescent color; in others there are varying elements that she has placed into the columns that change as viewers engage them from different approaches. Mysterious as the construction is, Pashgian has created tactile color with inner light sources emanating from the sculptures.

Similar to her columns, some of the wall pieces have varying elements contained within; however, unlike her columns, Pashgian’s wall works appear to float. It isn’t immediately apparent how they are affixed to the wall. The enclosed elements not only appear to be shadows, but also -Please turn over- ACE GALLERY BEVERLY HILLS

9430 WILSHIRE BOULEVARD · BEVERLY HILLS · CALIFORNIA · 90212 TEL 310.858.9090 · WWW.ACEGALLERY.NET cast shadows from within the pieces. As Kathleen Stuart Howe put it, “These interior elements at one moment capture a burst of light, then, as one moves around the sculptures, become solid forms that seem to push against the diaphanous surface… only to subside and dissolve into a ghostly presence.”2

In contrast to her larger works, Pashgian’s small, twelve-inch squares are filled with intriguing contradictions: each conveys a sense of movement despite being fixed, each is small in size yet implies scale, each is predominately black yet colors come forth, and each is flat yet sculptural in nature. There is a strong sense of movement within these smaller works – a blurring effect, trails of light following larger sources – but at the same time there is an uncanny stillness, as if she has trapped light in a frame. In slight relief, she has layered her boxes, condensing luminance and giving the impression of three- dimensions.

Most recently, Pashgian has created a large 5’ disc. Identical in size to the disc that she created at Caltech in 1971, the sculpture took three years to perfect. As a stunning example of her obsession with meticulous texture and craft, it is apparent that the artist has planned every vantage point for the minimal, ethereal sculpture.

Her recent solo exhibition at LACMA was recently acquired for the museum’s permanent collection. Of the installation, director Michael Govan noted: “The extraordinary quality of light in Southern California has often been cited as an inspiration for many of these artists ... Helen Pashgian: Light Invisible affords LACMA’s public the opportunity to enter a light-based environment created by an artist whose intelligence, refined aesthetic, and fastidiousness in making objects result in a remarkable immersive experience, both physically and psychologically.”3

Fellow Light and Space artist James Turrell added, “Helen was the one who as a sculptor spiritualized the material world. You can sort of materialize the spiritual, but she was coming from the other direction, and I thought that was really interesting and beautiful in her work.”1

A pioneer and pre-eminent member of the Light and Space movement, Helen Pashgian lives and works in Pasadena, California. She was recently included in Pacific Standard Time: Cross Currents in L.A. Painting and Sculpture, 1950-1970 at The Getty Center, the related Pacific Standard Time exhibition Phenomenal: California Light, Space, Surface at The Museum of Contemporary Art, San Diego, and was the subject of a major solo exhibition, Helen Pashgian: Light Invisible, at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art during the spring of 2014. In 2013, she was a recipient of the MOCA Award to Distinguished Women in the Arts.

1. Eliel, Carol S. Helen Pashgian. Prestel Munich, , New York: DelMonico Books, 2014. Print. 2. 2 Howe, Kathleen Stewart. Helen Pashgian: Working in Light. Claremont, CA: Museum of Art, 2010. Print. 3. Vankin, Deborah. “Artist Helen Pashgian Brings Her Love of Light to LACMA’s Space”. , 29 March 2014. Print.

For further information please contact: RYLAND BEHRENS | DIRECTOR, ACE GALLERY BEVERLY HILLS 310.858.9090 or email [email protected] Gallery Hours: Monday through Sunday 10:00 AM to 6:00 PM