Eric Orr
Night Shift
1990
32.25 x 72 x 1.75 inches
mixed media
artist lead frame
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One of the key figures in the West Coast Light and Space movement of the 1960s, Eric Orr was a sculptor, installation artist, and painter. Heavily influenced by spiritual and phenomenological concerns, his work explores the boundaries between space and time as well as the physical properties of the natural world, specifically the four elements of fire, water, air, and earth.
Adopting a shamanistic approach to his own working process, Orr sought to push the limits of perception and human understanding, drawing on ritualistic practice and religious iconography from a variety of cultures including Egyptian symbolism, and Buddhist and Hindu spiritualism. Orr viewed artmaking as an alchemical response to the world around him, and his work reflects a lifelong commitment to understanding the nature of perception, and how negative space affects our relationship with all that we encounter around us.
In this unique piece, entitled “Night Shift,” (now exclusively available through Bentley Gallery), Orr creates an optical illusion of vibrant form and color wherein the picture plane appears to transform through pulsations of color, and an ever-shifting depth of field, giving the viewer the sensation of movement, deep inside a watery confluence of electric purples and reds. In much the same way that Mark Rothko’s luminous color field canvases evoked a sense of calm and tranquility within the viewer, Orr’s “Night Shift” also inspires a deeply felt spiritual experience.
About the artist
Eric Orr’s work was included in the seminal Pacific Standard Time exhibition, 1945-1980 in 2011 and a twenty-year survey of his work was put together by the Museum of Contemporary Art, San Diego in 1984 and the Orange County Museum of Art in 2012 as well as a long-term installation at P.S. 1 in Queens, New York in 1997. He has shown at many seminal galleries including James Corcoran Gallery in Los Angeles, Cirrus gallery and Acme gallery in San Francisco, and his work is included in many important collections including The Museum of Modern Art, The Guggenheim Museum, The Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Berkeley Museum of Art and The New Orleans Museum of Art.
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(1939-1998)
Eric Orr, along with Larry Bell, Robert Irwin, Doug Wheeler, and James Turrell, pioneered the Light and Space movement in the late 1960s and ’70s, a genre primarily concerned with perceptual experience stemming from the viewer’s interaction with the work. Orr worked in installation, performance, sculpture, and painting throughout his career. In his paintings, the artist enjoyed using elemental qualities of natural materials, such as stone, metal, water, fire, gold leaf, dry ice, dust, blood, and lead. His paintings blur space via complex relationships of color and gesture, and much like his light and space installations allow for a perceptual experience for each individual viewer.
SELECTED SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2007 Eric Orr- A Survey of Works, Robert Berman Gallery, Santa Monica, CA
1997 Anders Tornberg Gallery, Sweden
1984 Eric Orr: A Twenty Year Survey, San Diego State University, San Diego, CA
1984 Neil G. Ovsey Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
1983 Foster Goldstrom Fine Arts, San Francisco, CA
1982 Neil G. Ovsey Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
1982 Taylor Gallery, Taos, NM
1981 Neil G. Ovsey Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
1980 Silence and the Ion Wind, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, CA
1980 Infinite Gold Void, Los Angeles Institute of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, CA
1979 Chemical Light, Janus Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
1978 Drawings for the Gold Room, Cirrus Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
1978 Seasons of the Fountain”, Larry Bell + Eric Orr, Delahunty Gallery, Dallas, TX
1976 Sunrise, Cirrus Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
1975 Salvatore Ala Gallery, Milano, Italy
1974 Cirrus Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
1973 University of California at Irvine, Irvine, CA
1968 Eugenia Butler Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2013 Gold Rush, Bentley Gallery, Phoenix, AZ
2013 Made in Space, Gavin Brown/Venus Over Manhattan, New York, NY
2013 Made in Space, Night Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
2012 Wall Shadow, Pacific Standard Time, LAND and Eugenia Butler Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
2012 Perceptual Conceptual Show, LAND and Eugenia Butler Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
2012 OC Collects, Orange County Museum of Art, Newport Beach, CA
2012 Pictures from the Moon, New Museum of Contemporary Art, New York, NY
2011 Lost & Found/abstracting Los Angeles 1945-1980, Robert Berman Gallery, Santa Monica, CA
2011 Phenomenal: California Light, Space, Surface, Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego, La Jolla, CA
2011 Slice of Summer, IKON Ltd, Santa Monica, CA
2010 Some (Old School) South Coast Guys, Robert Berman Gallery, Santa Monica, CA
2009 MOCA’s First Thirty Years, MOCA Grand Avenue, Los Angeles, CA
2009 Acquisitions 2006, National Museum of Contemporary Art Korea, Gwacheon, Korea
2004 Summer Print Sale, IKON Ltd, Santa Monica, CA
2004 Toward Abstraction, IKON Ltd, Santa Monica, CA
2000 Venice/Venezia: California Art from the Panza Collection, Peggy Guggenheim Collection, Venice, Italy
1996 Transformers: A Moving Experience, Wellington City Gallery, Wellington, New Zealand
1990 California Now, AndrewShire Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
1984 Ovsey Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
1984 A Broad Spectrum, Design Center of Los Angeles, CA
1983 First Show, Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, CA
1983 Sebastian-Moore Gallery, Denver, CO
1983 Fire and Water, Neil G. Ovsey Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
1983 Ulster Museum, Belfast, Ireland
1983 Douglas Hyde Gallery, Trinity College, Dublin, Ireland
1982 Double Vision, Documenta 7, Kassel Germany
1982 Musee d’Art Moderne, Paris, France
1982 Art as Alchemy, California State University, Dominguez Hills, CA
1981 Museum as Site, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, CA
1981 Light and Space, Lonny Gans & Associates, Venice, CA
1980 Furniture Show, Marion Goodman Gallery, New York, NY
1980 Nothing Special, P.S. 1, Long Island City, NY
1980 Fire as Prime Matter, Libra Gallery, Claremont, CA
1980 Lead/Gold Reliefs & Seasons of the Fountain, Neil G. Ovsey Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
1980 New Works, Cirrus Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
1979 California, University of Hartford, Hartford, CT
1979 Works on Glass, Minneapolis Art Center, Minneapolis, MN
1977 L.A. of the 70s, Fort Worth Museum, TX
1975 Transparency Exhibition, Long Beach Museum of Art, Long Beach, CA
1975 Sounds: Sound Environments by 4 Artists: Michael Brewster, John Doe Co., Michael McMillen, Eric Orr, Orange County Museum of Art, Newport Beach, CA
1974 Three to One, Junior Arts Center, Barnsdall Park, Los Angeles, CA
1973-74 Stone Serpent, Barnsdall Park, Los Angeles, CA
1971-73 Infinity Space, University of California at Irvine, Irvine, CA
1971 Glass Shadow, Giza, Egypt
1970-71 Sound Tunnel, Municipal Art Gallery and University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA
1970 Drawing and Performance, E.A.T. SHOW at USC, USC Fisher Museum – University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA
1970 The Sound The Shape of Pear, Museum of Contemporary Crafts, New York, NY
1969 357 Magnum, Dusseldorf, Germany
1969 Search Light Sky Shapes, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA
1969 Wall Shadow, Eugenia Butler Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
1969 Wall Shadow, California State University, Los Angeles, CA
1969 Volumetric Sound, San Francisco Art Institute, San Francisco, CA
1969 The Electric Show, UCLA, Los Angeles, CA
1968 Dry Ice, University of California, San Diego, CA
1968 Sky Lights, Century City, Los Angeles, CA
1968 Room Company #2, Los Angeles, CA
1968 Tracer Bullets, Figueroa St., Los Angeles, CA
1968 Fresh Air, Pershing Square, Los Angeles, CA
1968 1,000 to 1, Griffith Park, Los Angeles, CA
1967 Fresh Air Space, Barnsdall Park, Los Angeles, CA
1967 Vendenburg Letters, Sky over Los Angles, Los Angeles, CA
1966 Room Company #1, Rolf Nelson Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
1966 Animated Hog Show, New Music- UCLA/Pasadena Art Museum, Pasadena, CA
SELECTED PUBLIC COLLECTIONS
The Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY
The Guggenheim Museum, New York, NY
Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, CA
The Panza Collection, Milan, Italy
Museum Sztuki W. Lodzi, Lodz, Poland
The Maeda Collection, Tokyo, Japan
Den Haag Gemeentemuseum, The Netherlands
City of Denver, Performing Arts Center, Denver, CO
Newport Harbor Art Museum, Newport Beach, CA
San Francisco Museum of Art, San Francisco, CA
Berkeley Museum of Art, Berkeley, CA
Oakland Museum of Art, Oakland, CA
Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia, PA
New Orleans Museum of Art, New Orleans, LA
Yale University, New Haven, CT
The Frederick R. Weisman Art Foundation, Los Angeles, CA
The Norton Collection, Santa Monica, CA
The Royal Family of Jordan
University of Miami, Coral Gables, FL
The Rand Corporation, Santa Monica, CA
The State of California
The Capital Group, Los Angeles, CA
Chase Manhattan Bank, New York, NY
Chemical Bank, New York, NY
City of Los Angeles
The Robert Rowen Collection, Pasadena, CA
Southland Corporation
Security Pacific National Bank (Band of America)
Mitsui Fudosan Collection, Tokyo, Japan
Siabu Museum, Japan
City of Kasugai, Japan
City of Shizuoka, Japan
COLLECTIONS
Eric Orr’s work is included in the permanent collections of the Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY; The Guggenheim Museum, New York, NY; Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, CA; Berkeley Museum of Art, Berkeley, CA; Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia, PA; The Frederick R Weisman Art Foundation, Los Angeles, CA; The Norton Collection, Santa Monica, CA; San Francisco Museum of Art, San Francisco, CA; Chemical Bank, New York, NY; The Rand Corporation, Santa Monica, CA; The Robert Rowen Collection, Pasadena, CA; Mitsui Fudosan Collection, Tokyo, Japan; as well as many others.
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