Kacie Lees: Primordial Nucleosynthesis

Opening Reception March 19 from 6-8 PM.

Endlessly inspired by space and the origins of life and matter, “Primordial Nucleosynthesis” is an exhibition featuring steel and neon sculptures that envision the electrically lush, generative moments just after the Big Bang. These sculptures weave time into matter and tell the story of how our nascent universe was a symphony of freely zooming subatomic particles, scattering ionized light into a dense glowing fog. Inspired by a love of craft and chaos theory, “Primordial Nucleosynthesis,” highlights our inextricably-linked atomic origins in an act of universal solidarity.

In the title image of this exhibition, powder-coated steel sculpture backlit with multicolor neon renegotiates the use of traditional signage materials and revives Sir William Herschel’s 1785 Map of the Milky Way Galaxy. This piece, titled 1368, inverts Herschel’s depiction of the night sky, transforming the dark marks representing radiating matter into vibrant, glowing eyelets with light shining through. The dual-sided sculpture exalts the mechanics of neon assembly with conspicuous wiring and sumptuous hardware, to provoke a consideration of the assembly and technical components that make up our own universe.

About the Artist

Kacie Lees is a multidisciplinary artist born in the Midwest with a background in sculpture and exhibition studies who creates opulent site-specific installations using neon, video, and print. Lees elucidates nature and history through the ineffable phenomena of light and teaches inventive, media-rich neon courses informed by her multifaceted professional practice for New York University, the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, and the Museum of Neon Art in Los Angeles.

Event Images