LIT!: Site-Specific Installations by Maria Burundarena and Luftwerk
Free Events:
Opening Reception: Friday, Nov. 7 • 5-8 PM (CT)
Curator Gallery Talk: Saturday, Nov. 15 • 11:30 AM (CT)
From the late 1950s through the 1970s, California artists such as Robert Irwin, Mary Corse and James Turrell pioneered the Light and Space movement — creating immersive, site-specific installations that used light and spatial dynamics to transform perception. Emerging in parallel with Minimalism in New York, this West Coast movement shared an interest in industrial materials and geometric forms but prioritized singular, sensory experiences over repetition. Their installations — ranging from glowing sculptures to neon-lit rooms — were both ethereal and precise, requiring active sensory engagement and inviting viewers to see and experience space in new ways.
The artists featured in LIT! continue this legacy through site-specific works that challenge viewers’ sense of space and place using light, color and material experimentation. Both Maria Burundarena and Luftwerk create ephemeral, site-responsive works exploring the phenomena of color and light in relation to architecture, nature, data and historical or political contexts.
Maria Burundarena, an emerging artist based in Chicago, is known for combining photography, print media, collage, reflective materials and light in large-scale installations. She cuts, reassembles and condenses fragments of reality to explore multiple dimensions and challenge perception. Through layered photographic prints, collaged images and reflective surfaces — what she refers to as “supportive skins” — Burundarena constructs immersive environments and distinctive objects that reflect the visual intensity of the digital age. Her luminous, saturated palette evokes a world shaped by screens. Describing her aesthetic as “Raging RGB!,” she emphasizes the urgency and boldness in her use of color, light and material. By layering and transforming surfaces, she heightens sensory perception, creating experiences that are both immersive and physically engaging — resisting the flatness of digital imagery.
Luftwerk — the internationally acclaimed Chicago-based duo of Petra Bachmaier and Sean Gallero — has created a new site-specific, immersive painted environment in which light, color and form merge into a dynamic whole. Once illuminated, the work contracts and expands, continuously reshaping the space. The interplay of light and color generates a harmonious, meditative atmosphere that sharpens or softens spatial perception. To offer further insight into Luftwerk’s practice, several sculptural works from their 2023 Light Over Light series are presented in the adjacent gallery. At first glance, these pieces appear achromatic, but closer inspection reveals soft halos of color. Their hidden, fluorescent-painted backs reflect ambient light onto the surrounding walls, creating a subtle glow. These three-dimensional works capture the fleeting qualities of light — like the orange tones of dawn or the fading light of late afternoon — inviting quiet moments of stillness and reflection.
Artwork Shown:
Luftwerk, Open Square
Maria Burundarena, Hologram of a Memory
