Liam Everett and Larry Bell: the eukaryotes
For both artists Larry Bell and Liam Everett, light is not only integral to their research and investigation but also treated as a source of energy from which they extract information and form. Transparency and reflection, ongoing fascinations for Bell and Everett, would not be possible without this strange and powerful element. Light, most commonly encountered in the landscape as a source of illumination, is also generated on a cellular level inside the body. In this way, light not only sculpts our exogenous world, but our endogenous universe as well. This transfer of energy from the landscape to one's interior ecosystem is a continuous and essential process endured by all human beings and eukaryotes. It is a delicate symbiotic cycle that links all organisms whose cells have a membrane-bound nucleus; animals, plants, fungi, seaweeds, etc.
Acutely obsessed and entertained by notions around light emissions inside the body, Everett's ongoing research into quantum biology has ignited an outpouring of painterly actions. These paintings are not documents, stories, or illustrations of the spectrum of color light makes possible, but rather function as the ephemeral aftermath of the artist's investigation into ontology in which the net result is the manifestation of an autonomous system. Everett's own process, which he has referred to as "practicing practice," is simply to create a set of circumstances, questions and self-imposed restrictions that allow him to produce. The research is not driving the content of these paintings, it is informing and crafting their creator, who is then a better tool for their making.
Water, a battery in itself, is another key attribute in these paintings. Washes of water distribute pigment around the surface of these works to dramatic effect. Here, weeping hues of vermillion, cobalt, and violet dissolve and erupt in equal measure. The highly conductive nature of water allows it to distribute UV light throughout our physiology as well as across the canvas. There is a poetic resonance between the water used as a medium in painting to disperse color and the endogenously generated "structured" water that runs through us internally - fueling our organs, brain, and heart.
Larry Bell, a key figure of the Light & Space movement, sculpts with bravado. His glass and acrylic formations manipulate invisible shapes, expanding the subtle yet defining qualities of light. This sparring with "light" not only reveals its force, but its incredible agility. Bell's pieces, co-authored by the information carried on electromagnetic waves of radiation, allow us the rare occasion to observe the range and dimensionality of this broad-spectrum energy in the wild.
From chiaroscuro to the MRI this subject has retained fanatical relevance amongst artists, scientists, and scholars. Bell's focus on light tends to be directed towards the nature of surface, whereas Everett's is directed toward the interior, i.e. "beneath the surface." Both artist's works are representative of light, not only as a source of illumination, but as a form of communication and information.
Larry Bell (b. 1939) lives and works in Taos, New Mexico. Bell has exhibited widely, including solo exhibitions at Albuquerque Museum, Albuquerque, NM; Boulder Museum of Contemporary Art, Boulder, CO; Carré d'Art Musée d'art Contemporain de Nimes, Nimes, France; The Chinati Foundation, Marfa, TX; Denver Art Museum, Denver, CO; Fort Worth Art Museum, Fort Worth, TX; Institute of Contemporary Art, Miami, FL; Laguna Art Museum, Laguna Beach, CA; Musée d'Art Contemporain, Lyon, France; Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, CA; Oakland Museum, Oakland, CA; Pasadena Art Museum, Pasadena, CA; and The Harwood Museum of Art, Taos, NM. Group exhibitions include Tate Britain, London, UK; Hayward Gallery, London, UK; Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, NY; Museum of Contemporary Art, San Diego, CA; The Harwood Museum of Art, Taos, NM; Whitney Biennial, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY; and Museum of Fine Arts Boston, MA. Larry Bell is represented by Anthony Meier and Hauser & Wirth.
Liam Everett (b. 1973) lives and works in Sebastopol, CA. Everett's work has been the subject of solo exhibitions at Altman Siegel, San Francisco, CA; Kasmin, New York, NY; Galerie Greta Meert, Brussels, Belgium; Musée des Beaux Arts de Rennes, Rennes, France; Galerie Art & Essai, Université de Rennes, Rennes, France; Kamel Mennour, Paris, France and London, UK; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco, CA; Eleni Koroneou Gallery, Athens, Greece; Office Baroque, Brussels, Belgium; and White Columns, New York, NY. Group exhibitions include Galerie Greta Meert, Brussels, Belgium; Anderson Collection, Stanford University, Palo Alto, CA; Fondation Carmignac, Paris, France; Galeria Nara Roesler, Sao Paulo, Brazil; Museum Dhondt-Dhaenens, Deurle, Belgium; Arndt, Singapore; Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive, Berkeley, CA; Institute of Contemporary Art, San Jose, CA; Anat Ebgi, Los Angeles, CA; Headlands Center for the Arts, Sausalito, CA; Wattis Institute, San Francisco, CA; and Canada, New York, NY. His work is currently on view in the permanent collection at the Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive in Berkeley, CA and in the Anderson Collection at Stanford University in Palo Alto, CA. Additionally, Everett co-curated a group exhibition at Galerie Greta Meert in Brussels, Belgium that opens in March 2025.
