Turbulence is everywhere – in the churning of gas clouds that give birth to starts; in the stirring of the atmosphere that creates weather, in the eddies that agitate the ocean. Describing turbulence at a mathematical level is one of the most difficult problems in science – I often wonder if the organized chaos of turbulence might be one of the most defining properties of the universe . . .

 - Alyson Shotz

Alyson Shotz is best known for creating sculptures that explore properties of light, space, and geometry in ways that frequently subvert their physical scale and materiality. Beginning with minimalist forms, Shotz creates unexpected relationships between objects and their surroundings, inviting viewers to experience perceptual shifts as alterations in both substance and feeling.    

Turbulence, commissioned for the Rice Public Art collection, sited in the stairwell of Wiess House, reflects changes in ambient light from an adjacent window. This effect, combined with the shifting perspective of the viewer as they move through space, results in a dynamic experience of color and form as light activates the overlapping circles of laser-cut, plated steel. Turbulence is Shotz’s second installation at Rice University. In 2004, she was invited by the Rice Gallery to create The Shape of Space, now in the collection of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York.

About the Artist

Alyson Shotz (b. 1964, Glendale, AZ) received a BFA in painting from the Rhode Island School of Design (1987) and an MFA from the University of Washington, Seattle (1991). Recent projects include Scattering Surface, a site-specific work currently on view in Houston’s Hermann Park, Entanglement a permanent sculpture at the Billie Tisch Center for Integrated Sciences, Skidmore College, and Temporal Shift at Grace Farms Foundation, Connecticut, now in the collection of the DeCordova Sculpture Park and Museum. 

Shotz has been featured in solo exhibitions at the Nasher Sculpture Center, Dallas, TX; the Wexner Center for the Arts, Columbus, OH; the MSU Broad Art Museum, East Lansing, MI; The Indianapolis Museum of Art, Indianapolis, IN; and Espace Louis Vuitton, Tokyo, among other institutions.

Her work is included in numerous public collections, including the Guggenheim Bilbao, Spain; the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, DC; The High Museum of Art, Atlanta, GA; The Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY; The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco, CA; Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Bentonville, AK; the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, TX; the Phillips Collection, Washington, DC; Storm King Art Center, New Windsor, New York; the Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, CT; and Public Art, University of Houston, among others. Shotz lives and works in Brooklyn, New. York.