Paul Myoda

October 2–December 31, 2015

Paul Myoda, a Japanese-American artist based in Providence, RI, energizes UMMA’s Zillman Gallery with a new series of interactive sculptures. In this exhibition, Myoda uses historic representations of nimbuses in religious art—Greek, Buddhist, Hindu, Islamic, Christian, and others—as a springboard for these dynamic wall compositions that investigate the transformative quality of light. Geometric nimbuses occur throughout these histories, but vary significantly due to their perspectival representations. As Myoda states, “Each perspectival system places subjects and their nimbuses in different spatial relationships, and therefore provides a different attitude of spectatorship, from the immersive and corporeal to the detached and otherworldly.” The artist’s sculptures are developed in various two and three-dimensional design applications and then fabricated using computer-based technologies such as laser and water jet cutters, 3D printers and traditional hand tools. Myoda combines materials such as reflective acrylic, aluminum, LEDs, microprocessors and infrared sensors to create these constructions. In direct response to the viewer’s movements, the sculptures exhibit an array of behaviors in varying intensities, rhythms and light effects.