Artists Who Use Mirrors In Their Artwork

A visually interesting and literally engaging material many artists are drawn to mirrors and other reflective surfaces for their visually interesting qualities.  Based in concept, Dan Graham’s “pavilions” blur the line between sculpture and architecture.  Toying with perception the pavilions employ two-way mirrors and glass to engage a viewer and disorient his sense of space.

Inspired by artists like Graham, Danish artist Jeppe Hein is interested in illusion and turning passive visitors into participants.  Hein uses mirrors and other reflective surfaces in his work.  Finding the place there art intersects with architecture, and technical inventions, Hein often adds an element of humor to his pieces.

With similar interests Alyson Shotz also investigates issues of perception and space by using reflective materials.  Often Shotz’s works become visual representations of concepts from theoretical physics (string theory, dark metter, etc).  Other times her work exposes changing surroundings.   Shotz says of her works such as Mirror Fence, “I’m interested in making objects that change infinitely, depending on their surroundings. The light at different times of day, the weather…what the viewers are wearing, all these are just some of the variables that will make the piece different every time one comes in contact with it.  For me an ideal work of art is one that is ultimately unknowable in some way.”

 

 

Ryan Everson is a multimedia artist who reveals the sentimentality often associated with an idealized natural world.  As he explains, Fear addresses the “abstract emotional states stirred up from specific self reflective moments.” Sometimes apparent, and sometimes camouflaged, Everson’s Fear creates a deeply rich symbolic metaphor for the feelings evoked by fear.

 

David Altmejd employs mirrors in his works to help him, and a viewer, explore a fantasy world that puts reality into perspective.  Depicting mythical creatures, Atmejd blurs distinctions between real and perceived.

source: beautifuldecay.com