On September 27 and 28, Brown University’s History of Art and Architecture Department and the Brown Arts IGNITE Series will host Light in Art and Architecture, a symposium that continues conversation around the innovative design of the new Lindemann Performing Arts Center, which is part of the Perelman Arts District. The symposium will also highlight and celebrate Leo Villareal's luminous art installation, Infinite Composition , a permanent installation in the lobby of the newly opened Center, beginning with Mr. Villareal in conversation with former architecture critic of The New York Times and The New Yorker , Paul Goldberger. 

This two-day event, organized by the Department of the History of Art and Architecture, will bring together renowned contemporary light artists and architectural lighting designers in conversation with historians, theorists, and critics to explore Villareal’s public art piece that enlivens the lobby with panels of white LED lights that flow in an endless variety of patterns on the 30 structural columns that span The Lindemann’s main lobby.

In a conversation with prominent architecture critic Paul Goldberger on Friday, September 27, 2024, Leo Villareal will place his work at Brown University in the larger context of his oeuvre and examine the potential of artificial light as it transforms architecture.

On the following day, Saturday, September 28, 2024, four of today's most prominent light artists and lighting designers will present examples of their practice as it enhances, modifies and interprets architecture or creates ephemeral and transitory spaces in their own right. Anthony McCall, Grimanesa Amoros, Jamie Carpenter and Jean Sundin & Enrique Peiniger of OVI, will present their work and discuss it with a Brown faculty member and the audience. A roundtable discussion at the end will explore the future of art and technology. 

"This symposium will provide a fascinating look at the potential of light as a tool in art and architecture,” said Brown architectural historian and SAH member Dietrich Neumann, who helped organize the event. “We are very excited to bring some of the most prominent designers and artists working with light today to Providence. Astonishingly, light as a tool for artists and architects has been little studied, the paradox of the invisibility of light—our symposium will help to close this gap.” 

The symposium also features innovative light artists and architects who will present examples of their practice as it enhances, modifies, and interprets architecture or creates ephemeral and transitory spaces in their own right. They include: Anthony McCall , a light and film artist who occupies a space between sculpture, cinema and drawing; Grimanesa Amarós , a multimedia artist whose community works intersect with history, technology, and architecture; Jamie Carpenter (RISD ‘70), light architect and designer whose distinctive vision is conceptually founded on revealing and engaging the individual with the presence of light; Jean Sundin and Enrique Peiniger from OVI, light designers and ‘storytellers’ whose work with light is more than a tool—they interact with surfaces and materials that tell an emotional tale, providing depth and structure to a space.