Katharine Grosse: Canyon

Composed of eight 5-millimeter-thick aluminum sheets “petals” spray-painted with acrylic and connected to a beam, Canyon is a response to the artist’s question: “How can a painting appear in a space with no floor and no walls, where air, light, flows and energies circulate?” It is a reference to the characteristics of the “canyon” (the name given to the void that is visible inside the building from the ground up.)

This installation is the latest commission inspired by the architecture of the Frank Gehry building and follows those by Olafur Eliasson, Ellsworth Kelly, and Adrián Villar Rojas.

Echoing Frank Gehry’s glass facade—a ship moored to a cascade—the artist has hoisted a kind of cut-out sail using a pulley, creating a tense exchange with the architecture. From the work’s conception, a close dialogue has been established between the artist and the architect—a passionate debate around the use of color in a pre-existing building.