McClain Gallery will present Radiant Space, featuring works by Peter Alexander, Richard Anuskiewicz, Larry Bell, Gisela Colón, Stephen Dean, Christian Eckart, Gary Lang, De Wain Valentine, and Marc Vaux. These artists share an interest in materiality, perception, light and color in pursuit of an experience that transcends the purely visual. Radiant Space includes paintings and sculptures by several pioneers of both the Light and Space movement and West Coast Minimalism as well as artists who share their interest in the use of light and color as medium.

Larry Bell, Peter Alexander, and De Wain Valentine, along with a number of other very notable West Coast artists such as James Turrell, Robert Irwin and John McCracken, played important roles in the creation and popularization of the Light and Space movement which sprang up in the late 1960s in Los Angeles. Roberta Smith from the New York Times, states: “These artists’ lack of interest in making visual objects led them to start creating situations that gave the viewer a new awareness of visual perception.” Instead of applying paint to canvas, or sculpting in bronze, they focused on light as their medium: a material found in abundance in Los Angeles. Radiant Space features iconic Valentine “Discs,” Alexander “Bars,” and Bell “Cubes.” The innovations achieved by the Light and Space Movement were influential to artists who similarly focused on spatial phenomena.

Following the opening reception, the exhibit will be on display through June 25.