The exhibition is a journey into the luminous universe of the artist
Light is not just a tool to illuminate, but a revelation. According to James Turrell, pioneer of perceptive art, light is the work itself. With over six decades of career, the American artist has redefined the relationship between art, perception and space, offering immersive experiences that transport the viewer into luminous worlds. Until the summer of 2025, the Gagosian Gallery in Le Bourget, in the Paris metropolitan area (26 avenue de l'Europe 93350 Le Bourget), hosts an exhibition celebrating his poetics.
The All Clear installation wraps the audience in a white space without corners with colored lights generated by led screens
Born in 1943 in Los Angeles, Turrell has dedicated his life to exploring light as an artistic language. Since the 1960s, he has experimented with complex sensory phenomena, such as visual deprivation and optical effects, to challenge the limits of human perception. In 1966 he began using layers of light to dialogue with architectural spaces, an intuition that led him to create installations capable of dissolving physical space. Through technology he investigated the boundaries between light and material, turning each work into a window to intangible worlds. Among his most ambitious projects is the Roden Crater (1976), an imposing work in the Arizona desert, conceived as an astronomical observatory, where the visitor is invited to contemplate the sky in a dimension suspended in time.
Either Or uses reflective surfaces to visually expand the boundaries of space
The exhibition in Le Bourget is a journey into the luminous universe of Turrell. The All Clear installation of the Ganzfeld series envelops the audience in a rounded, white space without corners, saturated with colored lights generated by LED screens. The result is a feeling of total disorientation, similar to being immersed in a cloud. Next, Either Or, from the Wedgework series, uses reflective surfaces to visually expand the boundaries of space, while light transforms into a sculptural material that shapes architecture itself.
Not only artworks but authentic emotional and spiritual experiences
To complete the exhibition, two new artworks of light projection: Raethro, Yellow and Afrum, Lavender. Alongside them, six works from the Glassworks series, already featured in the recent exhibition Light of the Presence at the Gagosian in Athens. The gallery also exhibits holograms, photographs, prints and archival materials related to the Roden Crater project, documenting the dialogue between light, space and time that is at the heart of the American artist’s research. With this exhibition, James Turrell not only proposes artworks, but authentic emotional and spiritual experiences. Light is not only a visual element, but a bridge between human experience and the infinite.
James Turrell
At One
Paris
Gagosian
Curated by
Michael Govan, Wallis Annenberg
Until summer 2025
