Light & Shadow: Alyson Shotz and Kumi Yamashita features the work of two sculptors who create work of ethereal beauty. Alyson Shotz strings silvered glass beads on steel thread and hangs her nets and skeins in floor-to-ceiling installations. A critic remarked that her work “approaches invisibility.” In it, the solid materials of most sculptures are replaced by air and light. Kumi Yamashita presents ordinary objects that cast extraordinary shadows. Under raking light, a wall with a seemingly random scattering of wooden numbers yields a child’s monumental profile. A carved exclamation point casts a shadow of a question mark. A chair casts a shadow of a seated woman. Remove the light, and the art disappears.

Both artists create sculptures through labor-intensive handwork and trial and error experimentation. They are each concerned with expanding bits of matter into large installations, the space-occupying potential of virtually weightless materials, and the variability and mystery of experience. In Light and Shadow, the Wichita Art Museum is delighted to present Shotz and Yamashita’s awe-inspiring environments to Wichita and the region.

The exhibition is guest curated by Vicki Halper, former curator of the Seattle Art Museum. Halper also curated Australian Glass Art, American Links, and Cameo Glass in Context: Charlotte Potter and April Surgent.

Image: Kumi Yamashita, 0 to 9, 2011. Carved wood, single light source, and shadow, 72 x 72 x 4 inches. Collection of the artist