GAVLAK returns to the ADAA Fair with a selection of new works by Lita Albuquerque and Jessica Cannon, two artists whose practices explore landscape, perception, and the transformative power of light and color. Working across different generations and mediums, both artists employ abstraction to invite viewers to contemplate questions of origin, existence, and our place within the cosmos.
Albuquerque, who emerged from California’s Light and Space and Land Art movements in the 1970s, is celebrated for her large-scale, ephemeral installations in natural landscapes and her distinctive pigment paintings. Her practice explores the relationship between humanity, the natural world, and the cosmos. At the fair, Albuquerque presents recent works from her Auric Field series, combining rich blue, cerulean, and black pigments with reflective materials. As light interacts with their surfaces, the paintings reveal subtle shifts in color, depth, and luminosity. These changing visual effects reflect Albuquerque’s longstanding exploration of light, space, and our place within the universe.
Cannon presents new paintings of imagined landscapes that shift between representation and abstraction. Anchored by recurring triangular mountain forms, her compositions explore the relationship between earth and sky, juxtaposing the permanence of the terrestrial with the ephemerality of the atmosphere. Through layers of acrylic and iridescent pigments, Cannon builds intricate, lace-like patterns of color that create subtle optical shifts, allowing the surfaces to shimmer and transform with changing light. Her process unfolds gradually and intuitively, with each successive mark informing the development of color, form, and composition.
Together, Albuquerque and Cannon explore the transcendent qualities of light, color, and abstraction, creating immersive, almost synesthetic experiences that engage the senses and invite new ways of seeing. Their works transport viewers beyond the everyday, opening up spaces for imagination, contemplation, and transcendence. Particularly in tumultuous times, their paintings remind us of art’s ability to offer moments of beauty and wonder, encouraging us to see the world through a different lens.
Parallel to the fair, Albuquerque’s work is on view at the Palm Springs Art Museum in the retrospective exhibition, Lita Albuquerque: Cosmic Land, which brings together artwork from nearly six decades, presenting some of the artist’s paintings, sculptures, installations, and films together for the first time.