james turrell; skyspace

For over three decades, James Turrell has used light and indeterminate space—not objects or images—to extend and enhance perception. The artist once remarked, "I am really interested in the qualities of one space sensing another. It is like looking at someone looking. Objectivity is gained by being once removed. As you plumb a space with vision, it is possible to 'see yourself see'. This seeing, this plumbing, imbues space with consciousness."
The work of James Turrell (b. 1943, Los Angeles) has been the subject of over 140 solo exhibitions worldwide since 1967. In addition to a permanent installation at the Henry Art Gallery, Seattle and The Nasher Sculpture Garden, Dallas, which opened October 2003, permanent installations of James Turrell's work are on view in several museums including: The Mattress Factory, Pittsburgh; Museum fur Moderne Kunst, Frankfurt am Main, Germany; Museum of Fine Art, Houston; Panza Collection, Varese, Italy; P.S. 1. Long Island City, New York; Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art, Arizona; and the Springel Museum, Hanover, Germany.
Since 1972 Turrell has been transforming the Roden Crater, a natural cinder volcano situated on the southwestern edge of the Painted Desert in northern Arizona into a large-scale artwork. Through the medium of light, the piece relates to the surrounding sky, land, and culture. As an observatory, the Roden Crater will allow visitors to see celestial phenomena with the naked eye. Construction of the project is under the direction of the Dia Art Foundation and the Skystone Foundation with support from the Lannan Foundation.
Since 1968 when Turrell received a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts, the artist has been the recipient of a total of nineteen awards ranging from The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation Fellowship (1984) to being named a Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres by the French Government (1991). For six consecutive years, from 1997 to 2002, Turrell was given six various prizes and awards and three honorary doctorates from the Chicago Art Institute (1999); Claremont Graduate University, California (2001); and the Royal Academy of Art, London (2002).
James Turrell has a B.A. in psychology from Pomona College. He attended graduate art classes at the University of California, Irvine from 1965-1966 and received an M.A. from Claremont Graduate School in 1973. The artist currently lives in Flagstaff, Arizona.