Leo Villareal

Nebulae

Past
Mar 18 – Apr 3, 2022
Palm Beach

Exhibition Details:

Leo Villareal
Nebulae
Mar 18 – Apr 3, 2022

Gallery:

The Royal Poinciana Plaza
340 Royal Poinciana Way
Suite M333
Palm Beach

Connect:

(opens in a new window) @leo_villareal
(opens in a new window) @pacegallery

Above: Leo Villareal, Chromatic Nebula, 2021 © Leo Villareal

Pace is pleased to present an exhibition of work by Leo Villareal, whose striking installations and sculptures investigate light’s immersive, experiential, and sensorial potential.

The show, which includes five new sculptures and a selection of generative NFTs, will mark the artist’s first exhibition of his diffused color works with the gallery.

Incorporating LED lights, electronics, and custom coding, the new sculptures exemplify Villareal’s latest inquiries into natural and synthetic systems. They reflect the artist’s intense interest in the formal, abstracted qualities of his technologically minded experimentations focused on perception and subjectivity.

Villareal’s use of color in these sculptures can be understood in dialogue with his vibrant, long-term Illuminated River installation, which spans nine Thames bridges in London. With that expansive project, Villareal engages with the rich history of studies of the Thames by artists including Claude Monet and André Derain. For this project, the artist created subtly moving sequences of LED light that reveal the beauty of the existing architectures and their relationships to the river flowing beneath them. 

Among the artist’s other recent projects was the debut of his first series of NFTs, titled Cosmic Reef, on the Art Blocks platform in January. Created using a combination of human control and computational chance, the works in this series feature mesmeric, evolving geometries. A group of these unique, generative works, which are informed by beauty and randomness in nature, will figure in Pace’s Palm Beach exhibition.

Villareal’s presence in Florida can be traced to the permanent display of his light installation Sky (Tampa) (2010) on the south façade of the Tampa Museum of Art and his inclusion in a 2011 group exhibition at the Norton Museum of Art in Palm Beach. His work is also part of the collections of the Museum of Modern Art, New York; the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.; the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Bentonville, Arkansas; the Long Museum, Shanghai; and other international institutions.

Featured Works

Chromatic Nebula by Leo Villareal — Leo Villareal, *Chromatic Nebula*, 2021, LEDs, acrylic, aluminum, electronics, custom software, 60" × 48" × 3" (152.4 cm × 121.9 cm × 7.6 cm)

Particle Nebula by Leo Villareal — Leo Villareal, *Particle Nebula*, 2021, LEDs, acrylic, aluminum, electronics, custom software, 60" × 48" × 3" (152.4 cm × 121.9 cm × 7.6 cm)

Amber Nebula by Leo Villareal — Leo Villareal, *Amber Nebula*, 2021, LEDs, acrylic, aluminum, electronics, custom software, 48" × 36" × 3" (121.9 cm × 91.4 cm × 7.6 cm)

Fluoro Nebula by Leo Villareal — Leo Villareal, *Fluoro Nebula*, 2021, LEDs, acrylic, aluminum, electronics, custom software, 48" × 36" × 3" (121.9 cm × 91.4 cm × 7.6 cm)

NFTs

Cosmic Reef #73 by Leo Villareal — Leo Villareal, *Cosmic Reef #73*, 2022, non-fungible token; Contract ID: 0xa7d8d9ef8D8Ce8992Df33D8b8CF4Aebabd5bD270, Token ID: 250000073

Cosmic Reef #674 by Leo Villareal — Leo Villareal, *Cosmic Reef #674*, 2022, non-fungible token; Contract ID: 0xa7d8d9ef8D8Ce8992Df33D8b8CF4Aebabd5bD270, Token ID: 250000674

Cosmic Reef #302 by Leo Villareal — Leo Villareal, *Cosmic Reef #302*, 2022, non-fungible token; Contract ID: 0xa7d8d9ef8D8Ce8992Df33D8b8CF4Aebabd5bD270, Token ID: 250000302

Cosmic Reef #499 by Leo Villareal — Leo Villareal, *Cosmic Reef #499*, 2022, non-fungible token; Contract ID: 0xa7d8d9ef8D8Ce8992Df33D8b8CF4Aebabd5bD270, Token ID:250000499

Cosmic Reef #623 by Leo Villareal — Leo Villareal, *Cosmic Reef #623*, 2022, non-fungible token; Contract ID: 0xa7d8d9ef8D8Ce8992Df33D8b8CF4Aebabd5bD270 , Token ID: 250000623

Cosmic Reef #590 by Leo Villareal — Leo Villareal, *Cosmic Reef #590*, 2022, non-fungible token; Contract ID: 0xa7d8d9ef8D8Ce8992Df33D8b8CF4Aebabd5bD270, Token ID: 250000590

About the Artist

Leo Villareal works with pixels and binary code to create complex, rhythmic compositions in light. Firmly rooted in abstraction, his approach uses layered sequencing that results in open-ended and subjective visual experiences.

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