Sprüth Magers presents a solo exhibition by British born, New York based, Anthony McCall, to coincide with a major survey of his work at The Hepworth Wakefield. On view in the lower galleries is the solid-light work Meeting You Halfway II (2009), as well as a selection of large-scale silver gelatin photographs from Smoke Screen (2017)—an entirely new series that marks a departure in the artist’s practice.
Anthony McCall began his career in the UK making landscape performances and performative film and photographic works, before moving to New York in 1973. The same year, he initiated the solid light series with his seminal Line Describing a Cone, in which a volumetric form composed of projected light slowly evolves in three-dimensional space. He became associated with the London Filmmakers Cooperative in the 1970s and showed work there including the five hour solid-light installation Long Film for Four Projectors.
After a long hiatus, McCall returned to his solid light works in the early 2000s, and began a new series. He moved to digital animation which enabled him to animate more complex interactions, and he used haze machines to ensure the visibility of his projected forms. He began making vertical as well as horizontally oriented installations. These immersive, sensory installations could be said to occupy the liminal spaces between sculpture, cinema and drawing.