If you’ve ever wished you could be engulfed by a rainbow, visit the Lowe Art Museum (1301 Stanford Dr., Coral Gables), where a novel exhibit will leave you radiant. “Stephen Knapp: New Light” features 14 dazzling works by the inventive American artist, whose luminous “Lightpaintings” have been called the first new art medium of the 21st Century. Not unlike Isaac Newton’s mesmerizing experiments with prisms in the late 1600s, Knapp’s works bring to life the light that surrounds us via ethereal compositions that swallow the viewer into fields of transcendentally beautiful bursts of pure color. Knapp creates dramatic installations that employ treated glass and stainless steel to harness light in a distinctive oeuvre that erupts from the intersection of abstract painting, sculpture, and technology. “With my Lightpaintings, I separate white light into pure color and ‘paint’ with light,” the artist explains. “Each piece has a presence that far exceeds its physical dimensions. At once physical objects and illusions, they remind us that dreams, hopes, and aspirations are the center of art’s ability to touch the human spirit.”
Tuesdays-Sundays. Starts: Jan. 26. Continues through March 24, 2013