Larry Bell: Improvisations - Featured Exhibition | San Antonio Museum of Art
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Past Exhibition
Larry Bell: Improvisations
August 29, 2025–January 04, 2026
Cowden Gallery
See Current Exhibitions
Larry Bell,
Triolith (Poppy/Hibiscus) A
, 2020. Laminated glass coated with Inconel, 12 x 24 x 12 in. Larry Bell Studio, Courtesy of the Sarlo Collection.
Larry Bell: Improvisations
celebrates the artistic achievements of one of the most influential and renowned artists who emerged from the Los Angeles art scene in the 1960s. An experimental artist from the start, Larry Bell, born in Chicago in 1939, has dedicated his career to exploring themes of light and surface by transforming industrial materials into physical realities. The exhibition, originated by the Phoenix Art Museum, includes works created between 1969 and 2024 in various media ranging from intimately scaled collages to Bell’s signature floating glass cubes and monumental glass wall installations. The selected works demonstrate Bell’s ongoing innovations with industrial materials and processes.
In the 1960s Bell discovered a vacuum deposition technique using a tank, or chamber, that allowed him to transfer thin film deposits onto glass panes. The resulting sculptures and installations enhance the elusiveness of space by allowing light to pass through and feature metallic coatings that create subtle optical shifts. Bell has since been using light as his medium to focus on how different surfaces reflect, absorb, and transmit light.
Visitors may recall that during the recent
Still Brewing Art
exhibition a collections care area demonstrated how museum staff examine objects to inform conservation, storage, and display.
The Dilemma of Griffin’s Cat
, a large-scale installation that SAMA commissioned Bell to create for the Museum’s grand opening in 1981, was one of those artworks. The artist and representatives from his studio traveled to SAMA in summer 2023 and consulted with our team.
Larry Bell: Improvisations
presents an exciting opportunity to collaborate with the Bell studio to install the work again in a new context.
Larry Bell: Improvisations
is organized by Phoenix Art Museum and curated by Rachel Sadvary Zebro, associate curator of collections at Phoenix Art Museum.
In San Antonio,
Larry Bell: Improvisations
is generously supported by The Brown Foundation. Additional funding comes from the Elizabeth Huth Coates Charitable Foundation of 1992. The Museum is thankful to all SAMA members for their support of the exhibition.
Exhibition Gallery
Larry Bell,
Triolith (Poppy/Hibiscus) A
, 2020. Laminated glass coated with Iconel, 12 x 24 x 12 in. Larry Bell Studio, Courtesy of the Sarlo Collection.
Larry Bell,
Untitled (2 x 3)
, 2021. Laminated glass coated with Inconel, SIO and Quartz, 16 x 19 x 19 in. Larry Bell Studio, Courtesy of the artist and Anthony Meier, Mill Valley.
Larry Bell,
Untitled
, 1985-86. Vacuum coated glass and chrome plated metal, 12 x 12 x 12 in. Larry Bell Studio, Courtesy of the artist and Anthony Meier, Mill Valley.
Larry Bell,
MELGL 25 (Medium Elipse on Glass),
1985. Inconel and silicon monoxide on tempered glass. Collection of Phoenix Art Museum, Gift of Susan Julia Ross and Gary L. Waddington, M. D. Installation view of
Larry Bell: Improvisations
, 2024. Phoenix Art Museum. Photo: Airi Katsuta.
Larry Bell,
Deconstructed Cube SS C (Blizzard/Sea Salt/Lagoon)
, 2021. Laminated glass coated with stainless steel and titanium dioxide. Larry Bell Studio, Courtesy of the artist and Anthony Meier, Mill Valley. Installation view of
Larry Bell: Improvisations
, 2024. Phoenix Art Museum. Photo: Airi Katsuta.
Installation view of
Larry Bell: Improvisations
, 2024. Phoenix Art Museum. Photo: Airi Katsuta.
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