For twenty years, the glass bead has been Liza Lou’s primary art-making material. Lou transforms the possibilities of this tiny unit of color and embellishment just as she expands the meaning of the objects she recreates. Color Field (2010-2013), her newest floor-bound sculpture, features an expansive prism of color. The gridded rainbow is composed of uniform lengths of wire, each threaded with a single shade of beads. The sheer expanse of the piece conveys exuberance, underscored by the work’s bounty: its multitude of colors, beads, and touch. Pulsing and pixelated, Color Field’s complex mosaic foregrounds its construction and the network of hands which helped shape it.
Liza Lou: Color Field is organized by the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego. Underwriting support for this exhibition has been generously provided by Iris and Matthew Strauss. Institutional support for MCASD is provided, in part, by the City of San Diego Commission for Arts and Culture.