Leo Villareal
Star, 2003



Leo Villareal
Born 1967
Lives and works in New York, NY

Education
1994 M.P.S., New York University, New York, NY
1990 B.A., Yale University, New Haven, CT

Leo Villareal has been exhibiting since 1990. His work has been the subject of solo exhibitions at Lemon Sky, Los Angeles, CA; Sandra Gering Gallery, New York, NY; and Conner Contemporary, Washington, DC. Site-specific commissions include projects with P.S.1, Long Island City, NY; Palm Beach Institute of Contemporary Art, Palm Beach, FL; Art in General, New York, NY; Museo de Arte Moderno, Mexico City; and Creative Time in the Anchorage, Brooklyn, NY.

Selected group exhibitions and projects include: Sculpture Now, Palm Beach Institute of Contemporary Art, Palm Beach, FL (2002); Interstate, Texas Fine Arts Association, Austin, TX (2002); Optical Optimism, Galerie Simone Stern, New Orleans, LA (2002); The Next Perfect 10, Sandra Gering Gallery, New York, NY (2001); Eye Candy, Scott White Contemporary Art, La Jolla, CA (2001); rooms_for_listening, CCAC Institute, San Francisco, CA (2000); Elsewhere, Thread Waxing Space, New York, NY (1997); and Clown Room, Royal College of Art, London, England.

For the Winter Light exhibition, Villareal will install Star, an 18-foot diameter light sculpture in which 24 illuminated spokes of light, radiating out from the center, pulse in animated patterns that, at times, resemble swirling flowers, exploding fireworks or spiraling tunnels of color. The work plays with both spatial and temporal resolution as different parts of the display are activated and sequences build over time.

Leo Villareal is a graduate of Yale University and has exhibited extensively throughout the US and abroad including shows in New York, San Francisco, and Mexico City. His Supercluster is currently installed on the scaffolding that covers the south side of the P.S.1 building in Long Island City, NY and will remain on view through December 29, 2003.

"Star" will be illuminated from sunset to sunrise every day from December 1 through December 31, 2003.

Optimal viewing points for this installation include Halletts Cove in Long Island City, the northern end of Roosevelt Island, and the Upper East Side of Manhattan near Carl Schurz Park (from the mid 80's to mid 90's).