Stephen Knapp is an American artist best known as the creator of “Lightpaintings”, which have been called one of the first new art mediums of the twenty-first century. Dispensing with traditional media and narrative content, Knapp is one of a small group of artists who work with light. His Lightpaintings make visible the light that surrounds us and transforms it into something physical yet inherently transcendental.
These large-scale works use minimal tools, simply harnessing light and dichroic glass, which then throws a multitude of colours against the wall. Knapp does not map out or draw the installations beforehand, rather the final result is set by him as he moves through the installation process.
Knapp describes this process in a short movie on his work, “So much of what we see is based on what we have seen before. Lightpaintings came about because I had done all these different things, that non-stop creativity of experimentation is how I got here,” he says. “There is nothing in our visual memory that prepares us for what I am doing. “
Click through our gallery above to view more of Knapp’s incredible Lightpaintings. You can find out more about Knapp and his work via his website here
All images courtesy of the artist
