Art News

Spencer Finch’s "Lunar" illuminates the Art Institute of Chicago

CHICAGO, IL.- American artist Spencer Finch (b. 1962) has recently installed his luminous and wistful Lunar (2011)–a solar-powered, buckyball-shaped spacecraft sculpture that exudes light like “a lunar module returning from the moon with moonlight on board”–on top of the Art Institute of Chicago’s Modern Wing. Positioned on the open-air Bluhm Family Terrace, Lunar glows during evening hours the exact color and brightness of the full moon over Chicago as recorded in July 2011. Finch’s first presentation at the Art Institute is on view through April 8, 2012, and is free and open to the public. Throughout his career, Spencer Finch has used color and light as primary subjects–and materials–in his drawings, photographs, mixed media projects, and large-scale installations. Best known for exploring ideas about memory and perception, the artist often employs a colorimeter, a device that measures the average color and temperatur