Josiah McElheny’s Own Big Bang

In today’s Arts & Leisure section of The New York Times, I have an article about Josiah McElheny, the glass artist who’s certainly having a moment right now — museum exhibits, gallery shows, commissions. He’s a very thoughtful and articulate artist, a conundrum of sorts, because he’s a cerebral artist working primarily in a medium known for its decorative nature.

A little excerpt:

… a few hours spent with him there recently — during which he expounded on influences like Czech modernism, the 19th-century German writer Paul Scheerbart and various obscure historical incidents — demonstrated why this room, where he researches and draws, is more important to his work than his small glass foundry, also in Brooklyn. In a medium known for work many regard as lightweight and decorative, Mr. McElheny’s creations strive to convey sophisticated, often dark ideas.

…Over the next year Mr. McElheny will have his own big bang, a constellation of exhibitions that will reveal his work —in glass and other mediums — in more depth than ever. It started last month in New York, with a show of new work addressing fashion, abstraction and identity at Andrea Rosen Gallery, up through the end of June. In Boston on Friday, the Institute for Contemporary Art will open “Josiah McElheny: Some Pictures of the Infinite,” a midcareer survey that will unveil a major piece about the cosmos, “The Center Is Everywhere.” In London seven large sculptures, all involving mirrors that reflect abstract films, are on view at the Whitechapel Gallery through July 20.

Other events will follow, including a gallery show in Chicago in September relating to the Swiss literary modernist Robert Walser, and the premiere in December, at the Vizcaya Museum in Miami, of a film reimagining Scheerbart’s story “The Light Club of Batavia.” And next year the Wexner Center for the Arts in Columbus, Ohio will present a survey of his work, “Towards a Light Club,” focused on modernism.

Oddly, given all this interest, Mr. McElheny said he is “still trying to figure out how art works.”

Here was an artist eager to talk about his work, unlike some others who prefer to let it speak for themselves.

I spent many hours with Josiah, and I’ll be back with some further thoughts later.