Michael Venezia's works from that pioneering era thrive on the interaction with their ambient light. This becomes clear in view of the rare «bar paintings» and works on paper that we can present. The changing light reflections that appear on the spray markings and make the painting more dynamic are caused by the mixture of metallic pigments and acrylic or oil paint with which Venezia filled his spray paint cans. The artist achieves a similar effect today when he uses pearlescence in the newer «Block Paintings».

Keith Sonnier is represented with works that illustrate his diverse use of the neon tube. Sometimes it appears as a playful line like in the early work «Indian Sunset (blue)», 1968, sometimes rather committed to geometrical perpendicularity, like in «Plunge», 1989, or «Baghdad Relic», 2004. Ever since the beginnings though, the combination of the fluorescent tubes with materials such as cloth, metal, glass or found objects has been characteristic of Sonnier's œuvre. He thus evokes sensual, emotional and also figurative sculptural moments.

The encounter of the two positions in our exhibition accentuates the graphic elements in Sonnier's sculpture and the modeling quality of light in Venezia's painting. But above all, we see the innovative power of two artistic concepts, without which art would be different today.