New York light artist Leo Villareal has begun installing a new site-specific work in the underground walkway connecting the National Gallery of Art’s East and West buildings. By year’s end, some 42,000 white LED modules will pulse and phase to the beat of Villareal’s custom-written software, embracing visitors as they walk the concourse through most of 2009.
Villareal has previously completed site-specific commissions in Mexico City, Palm Beach, Fla., El Paso, Texas, and Buffalo, N.Y. He came to adopt the digital manipulation of light as his medium through his research into virtual reality in the early ’90s. While the NGA commission won’t open until later this year, two of his other pieces are currently on view at Conner Contemporary Art, which hosted Villareal’s first solo D.C. exhibition back in 2002. “Diamond Matrix, Death Star” and “Horizon 2” are not site-specific, but they’re related to his National Gallery installation in that they share some of Villareal’s computer code — and of course, his inimitable sensibility.
If you go
Leo Villareal: New Work at Conner Contemporary Art
Through Nov. 9
Conner Contemporary Art
1358-60 Florida Ave. NE
Admission: Free
More information: 202-588-8750; connercontemporary.com
