In a review of ‘Light & Space’ at Copenhagen Contemporary, Jeni Porter writes on Lita Albuquerque.
In scale and scope, the ‘Light & Space’ exhibition at Copenhagen Contemporary is epic. ‘It will be BIG in every way!’, the international art centre declared before opening the doors on 2 December 2021. Sprawling across 5,000 sq m, with artworks from 27 artists, it is the biggest exhibition ever for the six-year-old institution, as well as the most comprehensive presentation of artists from the influential light and installation art movement (Light and Space) that emerged in and around Los Angeles in the 1960s.
On site to recreate Materia Prima, first presented in Venice Beach in 1979, Albuquerque says she cried as she spread the cadmium yellow pigment on its bed of salt. ‘There’s something vulnerable and beautiful about being completely immersed in colour.’ Now 75, Albuquerque emerged on the art scene in the 1970s in the midst of the movement sometimes called Californian Minimalism. Ever since, she has explored our relationship to the cosmos with a sense of wonder and optimism. She perceives the Light and Space movement as prophetic, rather than an artefact. ‘I’m realising more and more it’s a profound movement. For me, 2021 was a hinge year. The Light and Space movement feels the same, like it’s a hinge, and there’s something really powerful that is yet to unfold.’
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