Liam Everett explores light and life in new Berggruen Gallery show

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In his first show with the Berggruen Gallery, artist Liam Everett explores the scientific nature of light in a series of riveting new paintings. 

The work in “The Passenger” is inspired by the artist’s research on quantum biology, and his interest in “how light lives inside us,” Everett told the Chronicle shortly before the opening of the show. Of particular interest to him is the relationship between ultraviolet light, photons and physiology. The Sebastapol artist was particularly aware of the very specific Northern California light in his studio. 

A quality of photosynthesis in several of the works suggests the transformative power of light in action. Many seem to capture the energy of light’s journey traveling point to point. In others, the light feels barely there, as though contained internally. But still, it endures in each work.

The series is an interesting new body of work with big cosmic themes. What could be more essential, more nourishing and connecting than light, this agent that makes life possible? At a moment of so much darkness in civilization, the show feels perfectly timed and particularly moving. 

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