His practice has been shaped by the ongoing manipulation of architecture, framing and altering the way viewers engage with the environment. Turrell began using light as a sculptural medium in 1966, painting the windows of his studio in Santa Monica to seal off the natural light and experimenting with projections. Squares of sky seem to float, suspended, in ceilings or walls architecture disintegrates and brilliant geometric shapes levitate in midair.

His sculptures and architectural interventions elevate our experience and perception of light and space. Make MASS MoCA a day trip, or, because it’s summertime, treat yourself to a longer Western Massachusetts arts-injected excursion and take in the neighboring Williamstown Theater Festival, The Clark Art Institute, the Williams College Museum of Art, and Bennington Museum as well.In James Turrell’s hands, light is more than simply a source of illumination: it is a discrete, physical object. Even what’s not officially on display-architectural and industrial artifacts-are worth attention. The museum’s notes suggest, though, that all these massive materials, along with catwalks, digital printers, and displays of antique tools, speak to a critical abstraction: “the shift from a material-based economy to one in which technology companies seem to generate billion-dollar valuations out of thin air, nanotechnology continues to operate beyond the field of the visually apprehensible, and capital is accumulated as a pure concept.”Īdd to these shows Laurie Anderson’s virtual-reality experiences, Chalkroom and Aloft, and James Turrell’s otherworldly light sculptures, Perfectly Clear and Hind Sight (which all require advanced reservations), and it’s easy for anyone to spend hours wandering the grounds and galleries. More concrete are the shipping containers and shelters constructed out of stacked wooden pallets in “The Archaeology of Another Possible Future,” by Los Angeles-based artist Liz Glynn ’03. Her small landscapes of scenes from Lebanon and northern California sing with harmonious hues, as in Untitled (2017).Īlso evocative are the wild and wily works in “The Lure of the Dark: Contemporary Painters Conjure the Night.” Among those artists is Sam McKinniss, who mines the primal experiences of freedom, fear, and awe in his luminous Northern Lights (2017). Also on tap are more than 50 bluegrass and roots bands, all set to play at The FreshGrass Festival (September 14-16).Īrt exhibitions range from enormous installations and digital-media displays to sculptures and oil paintings.Įtel Adnan, author of The Arab Apocalypse, creates poetry and lyrical images through leporellos-paper works that unfold like an accordian-and on canvas. Blondie, the classic punk band, performs August 3, and Jaimeo Brown and his ensemble, Transcendence, offer a soul-enriching fusion of jazz, blues, and hip-hop on August 18. The annual Bang on a Can Summer Music Festival (July 12-28) features boundary-busting classical music and a family play-along session in a jeans-and-T-shirt setting. This summer, the museum offers more than a dozen contemporary art shows, along with music and dance concerts, comedy acts, and films.Įvents take place throughout 26 old mill buildings, including an iconic clocktower, in downtown North Adams, and curators make the most of courtyards, passageways, and lawns. Since opening in 1999, MASS MoCA has been a welcome and invigorating force within the Western Massachusetts arts-and-culture scene.

Mass moca james turrell