En/Lighten: Material & Metaphor explores the enduring power of light as both a physical phenomenon and as a profound symbolic force. Across cultures and throughout history, from ancient monuments aligned with celestial cycles to sacred spaces, light has been associated with creation, spirituality, and knowledge. Bringing together works from the Rose Art Museum’s permanent collection alongside significant loans from other institutions, the exhibition examines how contemporary artists have transformed artificial light into an expressive artistic medium charged with emotional, political, and metaphysical meaning.
Beginning outdoors with Chris Burden’s monumental Light of Reason (2014) and continuing through the museum’s Lower Rose Gallery, En/Lighten features works by Dan Basen, Christian Boltanski, Dan Flavin, Felix Gonzalez-Torres, Jenny Holzer, Alfredo Jaar, Joseph Kosuth, Bruce Nauman, Nam June Paik, and Mary Weatherford. Utilizing incandescent bulbs, neon, fluorescent tubes, scrolling LED text, and video monitors, these artists investigate how light can shape space, make meaning, evoke memory, mark absence, offer social critique, and reflect and refract a plethora of human experiences.