LACMA to Show Josiah McElheny "Universe"

Josiah McElheny, Island Universe, 2008. LACMA. © Josiah McElheny, photo © White Cube (Stephen White) 

As part of its PST ART offerings, LACMA will install a recently acquired Josiah McElheny piece in the Resnick Pavilion. Island Universe (2008), purchased with funds provided by the Milner Foundation, goes on view Sep. 12, 2024.

The five starburst objects reference the chandeliers at the Metropolitan Opera and the big bang theory, both dating from the 1960s. When shown at White Cube gallery, London, in 2008, Island Universe was described as an "unlikely collision of interior design and cosmology" in which "McElheny finds a host of ideas that intersect modernity’s ruins, the history of metaphysics and abstract art."

Similarly cosmic works by McElheny were featured in MOCA's "One Day at a Time: Manny Farber and Termite Art" (2018-19).