Michael Somoroff: Illumination I
June 24—October 14, 2007
Exhibition Reception: Sunday, June 24, 2007; 3 to 5 pm
New York Times Review
Illumination Opening Reception at Bravinlee Programs
Is it sculpture? Architecture? A sacred structure? Michael Somoroff’s installation Illumination I defies easy categorization. Visitors to The Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum in Ridgefield, Connecticut, can decide for themselves with the presentation of the work in the Cornish Family Sculpture Garden this summer. Previously exhibited at the Rothko Chapel in Houston, Illumination I will make its final US appearance at The Aldrich before heading to Cologne in 2008.
“This genre-defying work blurs the boundaries between architecture and sculpture and functions as much as a place as it does an object,” explains Aldrich exhibitions director Richard Klein.
Installed with its open side facing east, toward the rising sun, Illumination I stands over 20 feet high and weighs more than 22,000 pounds. Inspired by both spirituality and politics, Somoroff’s work reveals its relationship to the phenomenon of light and the artist’s interest in sacred architecture. This interest provoked his analysis of the light patterns in the Rothko Chapel on the day in 2003 when the US attacked Iraq. He combined his empirical observations and personal reflections with the movement of sunlight through a historically-accurate digital model of a mosque in ruins to conceive the project.additional images | click to enlarge
The hybrid sculptural object was designed with the use of hi-tech software programs, including digital photography, computer modeling, and CNC milling. It is composed of fiberglass and resin, with a final coat of traditional, hand-applied stucco, combining sophisticated industrial production with painstaking ancient craftsmanship.
Michael Somoroff believes art to be a spiritual practice capable of progressing both self-realization and community, and is interested in how people interact with his work. He explains, “For me the physical object is far less important than the experience of community. During its stay at the Rothko Chapel, the installation was really embraced by people—it’s the people part that I find so fantastic. To make an installation such as Illumination I takes enormous effort—thousands of hours of a couple of hundred people’s time. Illumination I surely is not a ‘Michael Somoroff,’ piece. Many people gave so much to make this particular project possible. They invested and cared in astonishing ways. It is this shared effort—ultimately our collective and individual struggle with truth—that makes art matter. I’m happy to see that people seem to be interested in getting involved with it somehow.”
Somoroff’s work is represented in many important collections, a sampling of which includes The Museum of Modern Art, New York; The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; and the Smithsonian, Washington, D.C. His work has been included in museum exhibitions around the world, including the International Center for Photography, New York; the Los Angeles County Museum of Art; the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago; the Frankfurt Kunstverein, Germany; and The Great Color Exhibition of 1986, curated by Manfred Heiting in Koln, Germany. He has participated in gallery exhibitions in New York and abroad, including the major international art fairs. Somoroff is the creator of the Matrix Art Collective, a full service art production facility in the New York City metropolitan area, and a member of the Director's Guild of America.
The exhibition will open with a free public reception from 3 to 5 pm on Sunday, June 24, 2007, at The Aldrich, located at 258 Main Street, Ridgefield, CT. Round-trip transportation from New York City is available; please call the Museum at 203.438.4519 for reservations.
Somoroff’s related project, Illumination—an immersive 3-D surround sound video installation utilizing high definition technology—will be concurrently on view from June 21 through August 10, 2007 at BravinLee programs Off Site located on the ground floor of 508 West 26th Street, New York, NY, 10001. A full exhibition press release is available at http://www.bravinlee.com/artists/somoroff/somorofffront.html. For more information please visit www.bravinlee.com or contact the gallery: 212.462.4404, inquiry@bravinlee.com.
This exhibition is made possible, in part, by, Mill Creek Capital Advisors, LLC.
Top of page: Michael Somoroff, Illumination I (installation view at the Rothko Chapel, Houston), 2006-07. Fiberglass, resin, and stucco. 34 feet 2 inches x 26 feet 8 inches x 20 feet. Courtesy of the artist and Joe Akerk.
