While our galleries undergo changes in preparation for our reinstallation, you can find these and thousands of other works from the collection online any time.

Using LED lights and computer code, Bulbox 5.0 continuously shifts through a virtually endless cycle of color schemes in a geometric configuration of concentric squares. While on display, the work never exhibits the same set of colors. Parameters like opacity, speed, and scale are also manipulated through artist Leo Villareal’s custom software, creating compositions that are displayed in random order and for a random amount of time. This randomization introduces the element of chance to his work. Villareal explains of his artwork, “The essence of the piece is the code; colored light is the manifestation.”

Though he trained as a sculptor, Villareal’s interest in the combination of light and software came about when he attended the Burning Man festival in the Nevada desert. To help him and his friends find their way back to their RV, he designed a sixteen-strobe-light beacon affixed to the vehicle’s roof. He has worked with light ever since. His works combine computer coding, lighting technology, mathematical systems, and the influence of sculptors of light and space like Dan Flavin and James Turrell. Bulbox 5.0 also resonates with the color theory paintings of artist Josef Albers (see an example of his painting here).

Leo Villareal (born 1967), Bulbox 5.0. Light-emitting diodes, steel, electrical hardware, and custom software, 2016. 12 3/4 × 12 3/4 × 3 7/8 in. (32.4 × 32.4 × 9.8 cm). Museum Art Fund, 2018.14. Not on view. 

Image Description: A square panel with eight concentric squares of different colors or shades created with LED lights. The outermost square is orange, surrounding squares of decreasing size in the following colors: light pink, darker pink, lilac, medium purple, heliotrope, and periwinkle blue. The innermost square is purple.