Ron Cooper was born in southern California in 1943 and began exhibiting his work in the 1960s. Like many of the Light and Space artists of his generation, Cooper focused on light and perception, and attempted to make work that went beyond the boundaries of the physical object. Working with materials like fluorescent light, glass panels, resin, and fiberglass, his works manipulate and transform light, generating astonishing perceptual experiences. In this work from 2019, a simple bar of plexiglass covered in paint and pearlescent pigment becomes an ever-changing band of light, shifting and disappearing as the viewer moves through space. Cooper is the recipient of two National Endowment for the Arts awards, and his work is in numerous museums, such as the Art Institute of Chicago; LACMA, Los Angeles; the Guggenheim Museum, New York; Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam; and the Whitney Museum, New York.
