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Gisela Colon

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Gisela Colon
Photo: Eric Minh Swenson
Born1966
Vancouver, Canada
NationalityAmerican
EducationJD: Southwestern University School of Law, BA: University of Puerto Rico
Known forSculpture
AwardsHarry S. Truman Scholarship

Gisela Colon (born 1966) is a Canadian-born, American artist best known for meticulously creating glowing iridescent wall sculptures through a proprietary fabrication process of blow-molding acrylic. She is one of the few women working in the Light and Space and Finish/Fetish movements. Recognized as a successor and legatee of California Minimalism and the Light and Space movements, Colon has exhibited her work alongside veterans of these movements such as Robert Irwin, Larry Bell, DeWain Valentine, Peter Alexander, Helen Pashgian and Mary Corse.[1][2][3][4][5][6] Her use of color, shapes and internal layering is considered "assertively feminist," [2] and "grounded in Minimalism."[7] Her work has been compared to earlier male artists like Craig Kaufman, Dewain Valentine, Doug Wheeler, and Peter Alexander for her use of materials and light as medium;[1][2] however, as pointed out in ArtForum, "Colon’s labors are very much her own...Her employ of industrial materials and techniques thus structurally redoubles an earlier industry-driven technophilia, even as she eschews her predecessor’s penchant for outsourcing production."[1]


Early life and education

Colon was born in Vancouver, Canada, in 1966 to a German mother and Puerto Rican father. Her mother was a painter who studied languages and art at the University of Edmonton, Alberta, and her father was a scientist who obtained a Ph.D. in Chemistry from the Simon Fraser University, Vancouver, Canada. She was raised in San Juan, Puerto Rico since the age of one, and attended the University of Puerto Rico, graduating magna cum laude in 1987 with a BA in Economics, after receiving a 1986 Congressional Scholarship Award by the Harry S. Truman Foundation[8] in recognition of her outstanding academic excellence. Colon moved to Los Angeles in 1987 to pursue graduate studies, receiving a Juris Doctorate degree from the Southwestern University School of Law in 1990.

Early work

Colon began her career as a painter, exhibiting abstract works from 2005 through 2011. Colon’s early influences, which germinated from her Latin American upbringing in Puerto Rico, include Carlos Cruz-Diez, and Jesus Rafael Soto, amongst others. Her paintings also showed the influences of artists associated with "Light and Space" in Los Angeles such as Ron Davis and Craig Kauffman.[9] In 2012, Colon moved away from painting into sculpture, focusing on perceptual phenomena, an interest she shares with other members of the Los Angeles-based Light and Space movement, such as Robert Irwin, James Turrell, Craig Kauffman, DeWain Valentine, Helen Pashgian, Larry Bell, Ronald Davis, Mary Corse and Peter Alexander. Colon’s friendship with mentor De Wain Valentine, and the writings of Donald Judd and Robert Irwin, generated a conceptual shift in her work increasing her interest in issues of visual perception and materiality, which led to the creation of her plastic sculptures body of work.[10]

Current work

In 2012, Colon began working with plastics, developing a unique fabrication process of blow-molding and layering various acrylic materials. This industrial process creates acrylic sculptures that appear to emanate light and color from within, however this is only an illusion based on color and form, as utilized and manifested by the artist.[2]

File:Gisela Colon 1.jpeg
“Ultra Spheroid (Iridescent Orange) Glo-Pod,” 2014, Blow-molded acrylic, 42x90x13 inches, 106.68x228.6x33.02cm, The same artwork under two different environmental conditions, Top: natural lighting.
"Ultra Spheroid (Iridescent Orange) Glo-Pod," 2014, Blow-molded acrylic, 42x90x13 inches, 106.68x228.6x33.02cm, The same artwork under two different environmental conditions, Bottom: nighttime ambient lighting.

The Pods shift color before the viewers' eyes depending on lighting, and the viewers’ choice of location.[2]

In describing Colon’s work in the historical context of California Minimalism and Light & Space movements, critic Dr. Suzanne Hudson states, "Colon’s 'Glo-Pods,’ 2013—, irregularly shaped wall mounted acrylic orbs, recall the languid organicism of Craig Kauffman’s candy-colored bubbles; their intimation of light emanating from within the impossibly smooth contours additionally channels Helen Pashgian’s illuminated monoliths. Unlike Pashgian’s plinths, or Doug Wheeler’s neon-backlit canvases, Colon’s scarab-like objects achieve their iridescence via the play of natural light, yet the sculptures appear to change color as one moves around them, as if lit by multihued bulbs.Perhaps more to the broader point, Colon’s labors are very much her own…”[1]

Art critic Mat Gleason explained: "Rather than have some technological trick embedded into the art, [Colon] has made objects that are altered by the world around them yet never stop being themselves. This artist has thus delivered a meditation on the flexibility of the feminine as antidote to the rigidity of the masculine."[2]

Critic Steven Biller has stated that: “Without question, Colon’s approach to shaping, forming, and coloring is advancing the trajectory of the resurgent Light and Space / Finish Fetish movement.”[11]

In her essay “Notes, Thoughts, Observations Towards the Development, Conceptualization and Creation of Non-Specific Objects,” Colon refers to her plastic sculptures "non-specific objects," further explaining, that “Non-Specificity [is] a quality brought about by the inherent mutability of the object.”[12]

Art writer and biographer Hunter Drohojowska-Philp describes this phenomena: “When the most recent iterations of the Glo-Pods are mounted on a white wall, the 'inherent mutability,' so desired as an effect by Colon, is indisputable. Depending on the combination of artificial and natural lighting, the colors slip and slide like an oil slick on water. Further alterations are apparent as a viewer approaches the work. Among the many shifts, in a single work, pale aqua can turn to lavender and appear to melt within the form. At close proximity, the focus shifts to the frosty surface, as though one were looking through a white cocoon to the pupa within. At a greater distance, the pupa can seem to vibrate with the growing intensity of its perceived colors. There is no there, there: no singular location in which one can grasp all the implications of a single work."[13]

Colon's technologically innovative sculptures led to her to being named one of “The Most Powerful Women in LA’s Arts Scene” in June 2015, identifying her as part of the new cultural vanguard in Los Angeles.[14] In May 2016, Colon was identified as an "Art Star" in issue 113 of Coagula Magazine, and her portrait by Eric Minh Swenson was included in the Art Star exhibition at the Museum of Art and History, Lancaster.[15]

Museum exhibitions

2018

  • "Pods,” Daum Museum of Contemporary Art, Sedalia, Missouri (September - December 2018) (Solo Exhibition)

2017

  • "Pods," San Angelo Museum of Fine Arts, San Angelo, Texas (December 15, 2017 - February 4, 2018) (Solo Exhibition)
  • “Plastic Entanglements: Ecology, Aesthetics, Materials,” Palmer Museum of Art, The Pennsylvania State University, Pennsylvania (Fall 2017)
  • "Pods," Roswell Museum and Art Center (RMAC), New Mexico (June 30, 2017 - September 24, 2017) (Solo Exhibition)
  • “Trans-Angeles: Crossover Experimentation,” Neuer Kunstverein, Aschaffenburg, Germany (May 14 - July 9, 2017)
  • "Pods," Museum of Arts and Sciences (MAS), Macon, Georgia (March 3, 2017 - June 11, 2017) (Solo Exhibition)[16]

2016

  • “Past/Present/Future,” Grand Rapids Art Museum, Grand Rapids, Michigan (September 2016)
  • "Pods," Castellani Art Museum, Niagara, New York (August 21, 2016 - February 12, 2017) (Solo Exhibition)
  • “Trans-Angeles: Crossover Experimentation,” Chabot Museum, Rotterdam, The Netherlands (March 19, 2016 - June 5, 2016)
  • "Pods," International Museum of Art & Science (IMAS), McAllen, Texas (April 14, 2016 - August 7, 2016) (Solo Exhibition)[17]

2015

  • "Pods," The Butler Institute of American Art, Youngstown, Ohio (September 13, 2015 -March 31, 2016) (Solo Exhibition)[18]
  • "Artrageous," Palm Springs Art Museum, Palm Springs, California

2014

  • "Colorimetry," Museum of Art & History (MOAH), Lancaster, California
  • “Trans-Angeles: Crossover Experimentation,” Kunstmuseum Wilhelm-Morgner Haus, Soest, Germany, April 2014

2013

  • "Pods," Museum of Art & History (MOAH), Lancaster, California (Solo Exhibition)

Collections

  • The Butler Institute of American Art, Youngstown, Ohio
  • Museum of Art & History, Lancaster, CA
  • The Frederick R. Weisman Art Foundation
  • The Jarl Mohn Family Foundation
  • Beth Rudin DeWoody
  • Michael Straus

References

  1. ^ a b c d Hudson, Suzanne (March 2016). "Atmospheric Abstraction". ArtForum. 54 (7): 281–282.
  2. ^ a b c d e f Gleason, Mat. "Gisela Colon at Ace Gallery: Light & Space Art Gains Content". Huffington Post. Retrieved 8 March 2015.
  3. ^ Gemmell, Grace-Yvette. "Radiant Space". Artsy.com. Artsy. Retrieved 23 June 2016.
  4. ^ Tennant, Donna. "Radiant Space". Visualartsource.com. Visual Art Source. Retrieved 23 June 2016.
  5. ^ Goldstein, Andrew. "Could Silicon Valley Contemporary Be the Next Art Basel?". Art Space. Retrieved 8 March 2015.
  6. ^ Roth, David M. "Virtual and Real Shake Hands @ Silicon Valley Contemporary". Squarecylinder.com. Squarecylinder.com. Retrieved 1 March 2016.
  7. ^ Biller, Steven. "Gisela Colon:'Pods' at Ace Gallery". Art Ltd. ART LTD. Retrieved 13 May 2015.
  8. ^ "Harry S. Truman Foundation". Retrieved 7 April 2015.
  9. ^ Frank, Peter. "Gisela Colon". Art ltd Magazine. artltd. Retrieved 25 March 2015.
  10. ^ Drohojowska-Philp, Hunter (April 2015). Gisela Colon. Los Angeles: Ace Gallery. pp. 40, 149, 153, 154. ISBN 978-0-692-41011-0.
  11. ^ Biller, Steven. "Gisela Colon: 'Pods' at Ace Gallery". Art Ltd. ART LTD. Retrieved 13 May 2015.
  12. ^ Drohojowska-Philp, Hunter (April 2015). Gisela Colon (1st ed.). Los Angeles: Ace Gallery. pp. 150, 151. ISBN 978-0-692-41011-0.
  13. ^ Drohojowska-Philp, Hunter (April 2015). Gisela Colon (1st ed.). Los Angeles: Ace Gallery. p. 39. ISBN 978-0-692-41011-0.
  14. ^ Bloom, Rebecca. "The Most Powerful Women in LA's Arts Scene". LAConfidential.com. LA Confidential. Retrieved 30 June 2015.
  15. ^ Swenson, Eric Minh (May 2016). "Art Stars". Coagula (113): 47. {{cite journal}}: |access-date= requires |url= (help)
  16. ^ "Gisela Colon CURRICULUM VITAE". Gisela Colon. Gisela Colon. Retrieved 24 April 2015.
  17. ^ Moyer, Nancy. "Artist provides a geometric experience in IMAS exhibit". themonitor.com. The Monitor. Retrieved 15 June 2016.
  18. ^ "Butler Institute of American Art Glo-Pods exhibit opens". Vindy.com. Vindy.com. Retrieved 18 November 2015.
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