Laddie John Dill was born in Long Beach, CA in 1943. Dill’s fascination with light
stems from his early childhood as he was raised by a mathematician stepfather who
helped develop night vision technologies and would leave electronic equipment
scattered around the house. The artist recalls that he ‘’grew up with laser beams
running down the hall.
’’Dill studied painting and sculpture at the Chouinard Art Institute, but moved toward
unconventional materials such as light, glass and sand after receiving his BFA in 1968.
This material direction was supported by fellow Light and Space artist and friend,
Robert Irwin, who introduced him to Rio Score’s custom neon sign shop in Los Angeles.
Dill learned how to manipulate electrified gasses like argon, helium, mercury, neon and
xenon, and how to weld, shape and color glass tubing at Rio Score’s. Dill applied these
skills to his art practice and began creating his Light Sentences, wall-mounted sculptures
that comprise thin, straight neon fixtures made of radiant sequences of multicolored light.
After graduating, Dill also took on a printing apprenticeship at Gemini Graphic
Editions Limited (Gemini G.E.L.), where he worked closely with established artists, like
Robert Rauschenberg, Roy Lichtenstein, and Jasper Johns, while developing his own
prototypical work of the Light and Space genre. Rauschenberg in particular had a
lasting impact on Dill’s budding career. When the celebrated artist first visited Dill’s
studio, he was intrigued by what he saw: Dill had become increasingly interested in
how his luminous sculpture interacted with the environment, and had scattered
argon and neon tubes around seven thousand pounds of sand. Rauschenberg
invited Dill to collaborate with him, which resulted in The Light Show (1970). For this
nighttime art event, Dill, Rauscenberg, Dan Freeman and Robert Petersen each
created a light piece on a hilltop in Baldwin Hills that overlooked the city. Dill dug
six-foot-deep holes in the ground and placed a neon tube in each. The light sources
were not visible from afar; instead, onlookers saw only glowing lozenges of color
emanating from the ground. After this event, Dill created the first installation work
from his Silica Lightscape series, an on-going body of work made of argon glass
tubing laid directly in sand that fills a site-specific location.
Rauschenberg subsequently introduced Dill to influential gallerist and collector
Ileana Sonnabend, who gave the young artist his first solo exhibition in her
eponymous New York gallery in 1971. The show included Dill’s Light Sentences and an
early example of his Light Plains series. An extension of the work that Rauschenberg
saw in Dill’s studio, the Light Plains were installations consisting of panes of glass
partially buried in mounds of sand and illuminated from below by argon light.
Describing the Light Plains, critic Malcolm Morano wrote that they ‘’create a
fiber-optic effect that appears as though it has been exhumed from the earth’s core.’’
In the early 2000s, the artist began his most recent body of work made of polished
and wilded aircraft-grade aluminum to create reflective works resembling sweeping
brushstrokes, striated leaves or sand dunes.
Dill’s reoccupation with luminosity has persisted over this fifty-year career, and he
continues to experiment with the material and immaterial properties of light in
paintings, sculptures, architectural installations and outdoor laser light shows. It is
the artist’s ever-curious outlook with the medium itself that has enabled him to
create a uniquely beautiful and profound body of work.
Dill has has enjoyed solo exhibitions at Sonnabend Gallery (NY); James Corcoran
Gallery (LA); Los Angeles Institute of Contemporary Art (CA); Long Beach Museum of
Art (CA); Pasadena Art Museum (CA); Sun Gallery (Seoul); Di Donato (Naples);
Whitestone Gallery (Taipei); Museo Archeologico Nazionale di Napoli, (Naples); and
Wiesbaden Gallery (Germany). He has participated in group exhibitions at
institutions including Contemporary Copenhagen (Denmark), Walker Art Center
(MN); San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (CA); Otis Art Institute (CA); Seattle Art
Museum (CA); Buffalo AKG Art Museum (NY); Museum of Contemporary Art (Sao
Paulo); Museum of Contemporary Art (CA); Pace Gallery (NY); David Zwirner Gallery
(NY); Hammer Museum (CA) and Hauser & Wirth Gallery (CA). His work is in the
permanent collections of national and international institutions such as Museum of
Modern Art (NY); Los Angeles County Museum of Art (CA); San Francisco Museum of
Modern Art (CA); High Museum (GA); Philips Collection (DC); Chicago Art Institute (IL);
Smithsonian (DC); Museum of Contemporary Art - San Diego (CA); Louisiana
Museum of Modern Art (Denmark); and the Museo Jumex (Mexico).
