Since the mid 1970s, artist James Turrell has been planning and developing an extensive environmental project to further his investigations of light and space on a grander scale. With the aid of the Dia Art Foundation, Turrell purchased the Roden Crater, an extinct volcanic cinder cone located just outside of Flagstaff, Arizona, and began his conversion of the crater into a naked-eye observatory with multiple viewing spaces to observe and experience a range of visual and celestial phenomena that are magnified by the occurrence of light within specific times and spaces. In the color carbon print, ‘Roden Crater Dawn’, Turrell captures the site as is appears in the dawn light in 2009. Embodying the entirety of Turrell’s vision for the work, this photographic still highlights the location’s light, indicating the infinite possibilities and limitless experiences to be had there.

American artist James Turrell (b. 1943) has focused his career on light and space through his experimentation with a range of media and methods. Turrell received a BA from Pomona College in perceptual psychology and graduated from Claremont Graduate School at the University of California in 1966 with a degree in art. In the 1970s, Turrell began his well-known structural series “skyspaces,” which, simple in both their exteriors and interiors, provide the audience with a place to contemplate the sky as framed by an open ceiling and a set of walls. Turrell has also produced light and space based works in gallery and museum settings, exhibiting what appears to be a plain white canvas but in actuality is a rectangular hole cut into the wall and deceptively lit. Turrell’s works have been shown in hundreds of exhibits worldwide, and have recently been the subject of solo shows at Kayne Griffin Corcoran, Santa Monica, CA (2011); Garage Center for Contemporary Art, Moscow, Russia (2011); Gagosian Gallery, London, England (2010); Kunstmuseum, Wolfsburg, Germany (2010); and PaceWildenstein, New York, NY (2009).

Selected Public Collections:

Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, CA
The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, CA
Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, NY
Hishhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, DC
Kunstmuseum Bern, Bern, Switzerland
Museum für Moderne Kunst, Frankfurt, Germany
Musée d'Art Contemporain, Lyon, France
Berardo Museum, Lisbon, Portugal
The Israel Museum, Jerusalem, Israel