Do we ever fully understand a piece of artwork? Can we ever truly comprehend an artist’s meaning? Icelandic-Danish artist Olafur Eliasson would argue that we cannot. Rather, he believes, inconclusiveness, the idea that every artwork contains an aspect that is radically open, is inexorably intertwined with creative expression.

This belief—exploring the indefinite and the unresolved—is the thematic drive of Eliasson’s first major solo exhibition in Los Angeles, Olafur Eliasson: OPEN. The exhibition continues Eliasson’s career-long exploration of light and color, geometry and environmental awareness, narrating the story of The Geffen Contemporary at MOCA’s building and the atmospheric conditions of Los Angeles. 

“In this ambitious project, Eliasson taps into the legacies of artists intimately tied to Los Angeles and MOCA’s rich history of experimentation and innovation,” Senior Curator José Luis Blondet shares. “From Michael Asher’s site-specific interventions, to Maria Nordman’s exploration of space and time, to Robert Irwin’s perceptual experiments with light and space and James Turrell’s pioneering work in the use of light as a medium.”

Olafur Eliasson: OPEN transforms the vast industrial spaces of The Geffen Contemporary into a series of fluid experiences. The central gallery becomes a point of departure and return, welcoming visitors to meander throughout the museum, while various optical devices, from kaleidoscopes to mirrors, refract and reframe the building and its environments.

The exhibition features over a dozen works commissioned for The Geffen Contemporary at MOCA, as well as a selection of recent installations organized around the artist’s research on perception, optical devices, physics and natural phenomena, navigational instruments and color experimentation. Here, the theme of inconclusiveness emerges at the forefront of Eliasson’s artistry, in his exploration of the relativity of perception, and in his challenge to habitual ways of seeing and experiencing the world. 

“Each artwork opens up new ways of perceiving the world; each makes space for multiple stories, chapters in a broader narrative that depends on what you bring to it,” wrote Eliasson in an artist statement. “The artworks are open.”

Olafur Eliasson: OPEN will be open from September 15th, 2024 to July 6th, 2025 at The Geffen Contemporary at MOCA.