Diaz Contemporary is pleased to present established Canadian artist Robert Youds’ first exhibition with the gallery.
Originally positioned as a painter, by the mid-nineties Victoria-based artist Robert Youds shifted his practice of translating light and colour to what he describes as “light works” or “light paintings.” His large three-dimensional light pieces, while maintaining a playful edge, absorb the viewer into meditative ruminations. Aglow with colour, they are assemblages on a human scale that take an initial attraction and hold it until it becomes an extended philosophic moment.
Youds has titled this exhibition of new works Our Raum Licht, a combination of German and English words that translates to “our space light” but which is also readable as “our room light.” Youds is interested in aspects of visuality, that when reassembled, toyed with, and plugged-in, can become astounding and absorbing. The artist’s engagement with phenomenology leads him to layer light and matter to create experiments in perception and transparency that work between our ability to absorb visual information and our ability to fix what we have seen in tangible experience and knowledge. Says Youds: “I am interested in the work’s ability to transfix the viewer.”
This exhibition of 10 new wall panels and light spheres presents a unique opportunity for Canadian viewers to see a collection of Robert Youds’ light works in one location: an opportunity previously presented only by the artist’s U.S.A. shows.
 
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