GISELA COLÓN (American b. 1966, Vancouver, Canada, raised 1967, San Juan, Puerto Rico) is an American contemporary artist who has developed a unique sculptural language of Organic Minimalism, breathing life-like qualities into reductive forms. Operating at the intersection of art and science, Colón is best known for her pristine light-activated sculptures, created with innovative materials of the 21st century, such as optical acrylics and high-technology aerospace carbon fiber.
Colón has simultaneously challenged, deconstructed and expanded upon the predominantly male-dominated western canon of minimalism and its west coast counterpart, the light and space movement. Colón’s vocabulary of organic forms and humanized geometries embody a sense of energy, movement, transformation, and growth, that stems in a broader sense from the laws of physics (gravity, time, energy and matter), a connection to the Earth and the vital energy that pervades all living organisms, and the infinite forces that rule the cosmological realm. Through the utilization of properties of light, space, and movement, Colón’s sculptural practice addresses phenomenology and creates vibrant perceptual experiences for viewers.
Colón has exhibited internationally throughout the United States, Europe, and the Middle East. Most recently, Colón presented The Future is Now, a monumental site-specific installation in the Land Art Biennial, Desert X Al Ula 2020 in Saudi Arabia. In Spring of 2021, her work is on view in Quantum Shift, a solo institutional exhibition at the Tephra Institute of Contemporary Art in Washington DC. Colón’s work was also recently included in institutional exhibitions: In Vivid Color: Pushing the Boundaries of Perception in Contemporary Art at the Mint Museum, North Carolina (2021), A Very Anxious Feeling: Voices of Unrest in the American Experience at the Taubman Museum of Art, in Virginia (2020), Crystals in Art: Ancient to Today, at the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Bentonville, Arkansas (2019), and Brave New Worlds: Explorations of Space, at the Palm Springs Museum, CA (2019), In 2021 Colón’s work will be featured in the Los Angeles County Museum of Art’s (LACMA’s) historic survey exhibition Light, Space, Surface: Works from the Los Angeles County Museum of Art at the Addison Gallery of American Art, Andover, Massachusetts (2021-2022), traveling to the Frist Art Museum, Nashville, TN (2022).
Gisela Colón’s work resides in the permanent collections of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA), Los Angeles, CA; Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego (MCASD), San Diego, CA; Perez Art Museum Miami (PAMM), Miami, FL; Mint Museum, North Carolina, Palm Springs Art Museum, Palm Springs, CA; Grand Rapids Museum of Art (GRAM), Grand Rapids, MI; and Daum Museum of Contemporary Art, Sedalia, MO, amongst others.
Colón attended University of Puerto Rico (BA Economics, magna cum laude, 1987) and Southwestern University School of Law (JD 1990). Originally from San Juan, Puerto Rico, the artist lives and works in Los Angeles, California.