Art News

New installation by celebrated American sculptor Joel Shapiro at Rice University Art Gallery

HOUSTON, TX.- A new installation by celebrated American sculptor Joel Shapiro opened at Rice University Art Gallery, where it will be on view through March 18, 2012. In a gravity-defying array of color and form, Shapiro will suspend wooden planks, vibrantly painted with supersaturated pigment, from the gallery’s sixteen-foot ceiling. Known for his geometric, abstract sculptures that appear to bound across museum walls, floors, and sculpture gardens, Shapiro has embarked on an entirely new body of work, creating room-sized installations of colorful shapes and lines that seem to hover in suspended animation. Shapiro describes his approach to installation art as “the projection of thought into space without the constraint of architecture.” He adds in an interview, “I feel like I’ve been working for so long to have finally built up this moment of discovery that I can get the work off the floor and be