Josiah McElheny has grafted a distinguished art career out of two far-flung elements: conceptual art and a devoted study of traditional glass factory technique. He delights in making objects, particularly through the specialized and difficult techniques of blowing and shaping glass; he produces work of exceptional seductive beauty, which helps draw viewers into the complex ideas his art addresses. Although McElheny has explored the Renaissance and classical periods, much of his work examines the legacy and ideals of mid-century modern, which he has described as “…this weird transitional moment where modernism became infected with other influences.” Much of his work develops a critical perspective on mid 20th-century style in intricate combination with other cultural and historical issues. The Last Scattering Surface, an ideal example of his process, brings together the sputnik-like chandeliers of New York’s Metropolitan Opera House at Lincoln Center with the Big Bang theory of the origin of the cosmos.

In 2005 McElheny was awarded a residency at the Wexner Center for the Arts. He collaborated with Ohio State University cosmologist David H. Weinberg; together they arrived at a visual model of the Big Bang as it is understood today. As a part of this process, McElheny researched the Met chandelier’s producer, J. & L. Lobmeyr, who he describes as “the first glass company to work with modernist architects and designers like Adolf Loos.” These investigations resulted in two monumental “fallen” chandelier-like sculptures, An End to Modernity (2005), exhibited at the Wexner, and The Last Scattering Surface, as well as the film Conceptual Drawings for a Chandelier, 1965.

A sculpture that appears as, but fails to function as a chandelier — and, at the same time, suggests an image of the space-time continuum, a tribute to Viennese glass manufacture and a critique of space-age design, and is ultimately an abstraction, The Last Scattering Surface offers compelling food for thought to a variety of visitors. Josiah McElheny has said he became an artist to join a community of people interested in ideas. This constellation of disciplines stands in testimony to how richly he has joined concepts and forms.