Interview with Leo Villareal: The ‘modern sculptor of light’ on what goes on behind the Screens
Part engineer, part sculptor, part electrician, part coder: the American artist Leo Villareal has captured the attention of audiences across the world with his mesmerizing, light-driven work. With installations in San Francisco, London, Auckland and Florida his work is both exclusive as it is accessible, balancing the fine line between hype and down to earth.
His latest body of work “Nebulae” is part of Villareal’s first solo exhibition in Switzerland, which is being shown at Pace Gallery in Geneva. We took the opportunity to ask him a few questions on what goes on behind the scenes and screens of his creative process.
You’re often referred to as the “painter of light” – can you give us a bit more context on your creative process and describe how you “paint” – from the spark of an idea to a finished piece of work?
While I would never refer to myself as a painter of light, that is a pretty accurate description of what I do when I use custom software and lights as a tool to explore the ideas and concepts that I am interested in. For the Nebulae, I start with what I would call a canvas, an array of LEDs, diffused with acrylic. I then use my custom software to create sequences on that canvas. I employ concepts of emergent behavior and…
