Josiah McElheny

London

With his exhibition Josiah McElheny: The Past Was A Mirage I Had Left Far Behind, American sculptor Josiah McElheny transforms the Whitechapel Gallery into a kaleidoscopic hall of mirrors. Seven large-scale mirrored sculptures are arranged as multiple reflective screens on which he projects reconfigured abstract films.

McElheny is inspired by the history of Gallery 2, once a library reading room. Founded in 1896 to bring enlightenment values to impoverished Londoners, it became a crucible for the founding of British Modernism in the 1900s by émigré artists and intellectuals. McElheny gives a 21st century expression to this historic movement, plunging the viewer into a light-filled kinetic zone of geometric forms, biomorphic shapes and radiant colors.

Whitechapel Gallery

September 7th, 2011 – August 19th, 2012
77-82 Whitechapel High Street
London, E1 7QX
UK

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