Artist Talk: August Muth

Join artist August Muth for a talk about his holographic work and his studies at the intersection of light, space, and time.

Muth's work is on view in IRIDESCENCE May 2-26, 2019 at HoloCenter | ON CANAL. Visit IRIDESCENCE page for details. Continue your exploration of holograms at UrbanGlass Studios and sign up for Optical Sculptures and Holograms with Martina Mrongovius.

About the artist

For more than 30 years Muth has been an internationally exhibiting artist and a pioneer in the exploration of light through holography. His interest in light began at the age of 16 when he began making large water-filled glass prisms, which he used to refract prismatic light upon his family’s garage door. In 1973 he left Albuquerque to work as a jewelry maker in Aspen, Colorado, where he became captivated by the light of opals and diamonds. Upon returning to Albuquerque the following year, he began his studies in art and physics at the University of New Mexico, and later continued at the University of Houston, and the University of Texas at Austin.

Muth moved to New York City in 1978 to begin walking the path as an artist. In 1980 he began his holographic exploration at The Museum Of Holography in Soho under Fred Unterseher. He relocated to the Telluride, Colorado area in 1985 to build his first holographic studio, and spent the next 7 years honing his skills in the Denisyuk single-beam holography technique.  During this time his interest in the relationship between light, space, and time intensified, requiring a studio expansion.  In 1994 his studio was reimagined and constructed in Santa Fe, New Mexico.  

In Santa Fe the desire to produce larger holograms became a priority, and for the next several years he spent thousands of hours developing techniques in this quest. Trial and failure became a large part of his practice since large-scale single-beam holograms had never been produced by anyone previously.  After a pivotal insight which resulted in the discarding and total metamorphosis of previously learned processes, he was able to create holograms in a greater scale. Muth continues to produce works exploring the light-space-time continuum in his Santa fe, New Mexico studio.