Gisela Colon

Diane Rosenstein is pleased to announce Hyper-Minimal, a solo exhibition of new sculpture by Los Angeles-based artist Gisela Colon. Hyper-Minimal will present vivid and metallic hued blow-molded acrylic sculptures in an installation that invites the viewer to actively engage in an optical and perceptual experience. This is Gisela Colon's first exhibition with the gallery.

This exhibition will present fifteen new works (created since 2015) including two new freestanding pieces. One monumental piece is a twelve-foot monolith fabricated in iridescent carbon fiber. Hyper-Minimal also debuts a large-scale multi-part installation (spanning over twenty-seven feet), which introduces the formal aspect of seriality and repetition.

Taking a cue from Donald Judd’s notion of “specific objects,” Colon has dubbed her own works “non-specific objects” to highlight their deliberate fluid indeterminacy. Her color-infused acrylics and the interplay between light, perception, and lucid materiality embodies the ideals and the evolving investigations of the California Light and Space movement. The artist, who was raised in San Juan, Puerto Rico, identifies the early influence of Venezuelan artists Jésus Rafael Soto and Carlos Cruz-Diez on her practice. This body of work continues a conversation with Latin American geometric modernism and the legacy of Op Art.

Gisela Colon (Canada, b. 1966) was raised in San Juan, Puerto Rico and received her BA from the University of Puerto Rico (1987) and JD from Southwestern University School of Law, Los Angeles (1990). Colon first exhibited abstract paintings (2005 - 2011), then, in 2012, moved into sculpture, focusing on perceptual phenomena, and the ideals and practices of the members of the California Light and Space movement, such as Robert Irwin, James Turrell, Craig Kauffman, DeWain Valentine, Helen Pashgian, Larry Bell, Doug Wheeler, and Peter Alexander. Colon’s friendship with mentor DeWain 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. Through an industrial process Colon developed a unique fabrication method of blow-molding and layering various acrylic materials, producing mutable objects that appear to emanate light and color from within.

Colon’s work is the subject of a national museum exhibition tour which commenced at The Butler Institute of American Art, Youngstown, OH (Sept. 2015- Mar. 2016), [travelling to: International Museum of Art & Science (IMAS), McAllen, TX (Apr 14- Aug 7, 2016); Castellani Art Museum, Niagara, NY (Aug 28, 2016- Feb 12, 2017); Museum of Arts and Sciences (MAS), Macon, GA (Mar 3 – June 11 2017); Roswell Museum and Art Center, Roswell, NM (June 30 – Sept 24, 2017); San Angelo Museum of Fine Arts, San Angelo, TX (Dec 15, 2017 – February 4, 2018); Boise Art Museum, Boise ID (March - July 2018); Daum Museum of Contemporary Art, Sedalia, MO (Sept - Dec 2018).

Colon’s sculpture is in the permanent collection of The Butler Institute of American Art, Youngstown, OH; the Castellani Art Museum, Niagara, NY; the Grand Rapids Museum of Art (GRAM), Grand Rapids, MI; and the Museum of Art & History (MOAH), Lancaster, CA. She was included in thematic museum exhibitions in the US and Europe at the Grand Rapids Art Museum (2016); the Kunstmuseum Wilhelm-Morgner Haus, Soest, Germany (2014); and the Chabot Museum, The Netherlands (2016); as well as upcoming shows at the Neuer Kunstverein, Kunstlanding, Aschaffenburg, Germany (May - July 2017) and the Palmer Museum of Art, Penn State University, PA (Fall 2017). The artist lives and works in Los Angeles.