TEMPE, AZ.- In a joint collaboration between ASU Art Museum and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, “Point Cloud (ASU)” is a newly commissioned light sculpture by Leo Villareal. Inspired by ASU Art Museum’s architecture, designed by Antoine Predock in 1987, Villareal worked with the mobile 3D scan technology company Kaarta to map both the inside and outside of the building, creating approximately 147,000,000 exterior data points and over 53,000,000 interior data points. Villareal then manipulated the data with custom software to create this captivating public artwork. This is the first time the artist used actual data sampled from a location as part of an artwork.

Villareal brings the museum’s exterior to life through the use of light, revealing the unseen and creating a sense of wonder. “Light has this universal power to connect people together,” said Villareal. “This project at ASU is a chance to really experiment and a chance to try something new. We’re marrying the particle animations and all the things I have been working on recently, with this actual physical data space.” There are moments when the image is recognizable and others when it dissolves into abstraction; a procession through dots, lines and planes.




This is one of several collaborations between the Los Angeles County Museum of Art and Arizona State University, which also include joining forces on James Turrell’s Roden Crater and the LACMA-ASU Fellowship in Art History, a three-year degree program that pairs rigorous academic instruction through traditional masters-level coursework with on-the-job work experience. “In ASU and LACMA’s ongoing collaboration, it is gratifying to see this artwork by Leo Villareal come to life,” said Michael Govan, Wallis Annenberg director and CEO of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. “This kinetic light installation is specific to the building and creates a new awareness of its site and architecture. The medium is digital but like the art of James Turrell, whose Roden Crater project is part of our collaboration, it also connects to nature, to the cosmos and to our perception.”

“When Michael and I considered what artist to invite to this inaugural public art program, there was no other person best suited to respond to the conditions of the Southwest and our interdisciplinary academic environment than Leo Villareal,” said Miki Garcia, director of the ASU Art Museum. “He is an artist who draws from a breadth of knowledge, uses an experimental approach, and brings an ethic of community and learning to all his projects. This artwork has set a new bar for our museum and we are humbled and honored to present this installation to our students, community and the larger public.”

Leo Villareal, “Point Cloud (ASU)” is part of the ASU Art Museum’s Halle Public Art Initiative and is generously supported by The Diane and Bruce Halle Foundation with additional funding by the Herberger Institute Dean’s Creativity Council and organized in collaboration with ASU's Roden Crater Initiative. It was produced as a collaboration between the ASU Art Museum and the Los Angeles County Art Museum (LACMA).