On January 1, 2007, the Albright-Knox debuted a new installation by James Turrell: Gap from the series “Tiny Town,” 2001/2006. This work is currently on view once again as part of the special exhibition Out of Sight! Art of the Senses.

Since the 1960s, light itself has been Turrell’s primary medium. In Gap, he plays on our sometimes easily misled powers of perception, calibrating the gallery space to project the initial illusion of a flat surface. However, the mysterious glowing rectangle at the rear of this darkened gallery is actually an opening into a carefully lit inner chamber. For Turrell, direct interaction with light offers experiences of “wordless thought” and the meditative space to contemplate other intangible notions, such as the infinite or the sublime.