Luftwerk: The Sun Standing Still

 

SECRIST | BEACH is pleased to announce our representation of, and the debut solo presentation for, Chicago-based artist collaborative Luftwerk. The Sun Standing Still features a suite of new sculptures, wall reliefs, and a site-specific installation by Luftwerk that investigate the dynamic interplay between sunlight and the Earth’s revolution. This exhibition is presented concurrently with Luminous Matter, an invitational survey co-organized with Luftwerk and featuring 8 artists.

 

The time before and after daylight, when everything appears muted yet quietly spectacular, reveals a distinct and transitory palette. Capturing the fleeting and subjective perception of light and atmosphere, the works on view in The Sun Standing Still explore how color, devoid of literal representation, can evoke emotional and sensory responses. Fittingly, the exhibition dates include December 21, better known as the Winter Solstice, or the first day of winter. This is the day when the Northern Hemisphere is tilted farthest from the sun, resulting in the shortest period of daylight and the longest night of the year. Beyond it’s astronomical importance, this day also marks the culturally symbolic rebirth of the sun: a renewal imbued with hope, resilience, and the cyclical rhythm of time.

 

Expanding upon their ongoing investigations into the relationship between perception, space, and light, Luftwerk draws conceptual parallels to Claude Monet’s 1872 painting Impression, soleil levant (Impression, Sunrise), the work that gave name to Impressionism. Just as Monet sought to capture the immediacy of light, Luftwerk transforms that fleeting energy into sculptural and immersive forms, translating light itself into color and vibration.