Keith Sonnier

Keith Sonnier is internationally known for the innovative way he uses neon, fiber optics, and incandescent light to evoke ancient, exotic, or erotic forms. He was raised in a French-speaking Acadian community and studied art at the University of Southwestern Louisiana at Lafayette and, after returning from a year in Paris, earned his MFA from Rutgers University in 1966. He emerged out of a generation of artists in New York City whose pioneering use of industrial and ephemeral materials challenged the existing orthodox views of art and expanded the definition of sculpture. Sonnier’s early light sculptures from the late 1960s utilized simple incandescent lightbulbs and their fixtures. Since then, his light works have grown increasingly complex in scale, often incorporating neon tubes and incandescent lightbulbs with exposed wires, transformer boxes, and found objects. Both his individual sculptures and his site-specific installations explore the reflection and diffusion of light through the inherent material qualities of the work and the surrounding architectural space.

Sonnier’s diverse body of work is in the collections of many of the world’s major museums, and he has been the subject of more than one hundred solo exhibitions in ten countries. His public commissions are equally numerous, and include a 3,280-foot-long neon installation for the Munich International Airport in Germany.