New Figge Lighting Aims to be Tourism Magnet
New Figge Lighting Aims to be Tourism Magnet
By Jonathan Turner
Pope Leo XIV isn’t the only American Leo making the news this month.
The equally world-renowned Leo Villareal – a 58-year-old Mexican-American light artist based in New York City – was here in Davenport on a very special night, May 17.
At an outdoor “Glow Up” party was the formal public introduction of his spectacular “Evanescent Field,” illuminating the entire Figge Art Museum (225 W. 2nd St.), already a Quad Cities a landmark since it opened 20 years ago this August.
Commissioned in honor of the Figge’s Centennial (the museum predecessor, Davenport Municipal Art Gallery, first opened in 1925), “Evanescent Field” is a one-mile-long, four-sided light sculpture that bathes the museum in constantly evolving color. The project features 5,000 linear feet of color-changing LED lights and custom-coded light sequences.
Inspired by the movement of the Mississippi River, Villareal’s signature sequencing ensures the patterns never repeat. This long-awaited project fulfills Pritzker award-winning architect Sir David Chipperfield’s original vision for the Figge to glow from within, illuminating a bright future for arts and culture in the Midwest, according to the Figge.
“For me, it's been an incredible journey to get to know Davenport, Iowa,” Villareal told the assembled “Glow Up” crowd in Bechtel Plaza. “It's been over 10 years, when I was asked to think about this museum and how it could be activated and illuminated. I'm a tremendous fan of David Chipperfield's building. It's extraordinary — I don't think there's anything else like it in the world, the way it was intentionally, from the beginning, meant to be illuminated.”
Villareal said extraordinary LED technology was brought to bear, to bring the lighting to life, and when the dramatic switch was flipped, the feeling and sight was literally electrifying. “It's a piece of public art — everyone will see it, and encourage more people to come to the Figge, and cross the threshold,” he said. “It's something very special and I'm honored to have the opportunity to be part of this building.”
“Evanescent Field” is now the largest public art installation in Iowa and as Lt. Gov. Chris Cournoyer (who lives in LeClaire) said that night, it aims to help draw many more tourists, residents and businesses to Davenport and the QC region.
An “Evanescent Field of Dreams”? We built it (courtesy of a $1.6 million state tourism grant and $2.4 million in private donations), now will they come?
The Figge notes on its website:
“Created by the artist behind San Francisco's Bay Lights and London's Illuminated River, Evanescent Field will put Davenport—and the Quad Cities—on the national map for contemporary and public art. Evanescent Field will be the largest public art installation in Iowa and one of the most ambitious light-based artworks in the Midwest. It will enhance downtown Davenport's identity as a destination for innovation, arts, and culture while attracting visitors, attention, and creative energy to the region.”
Quad Citizens should justly take pride in such a visually stunning display (lit every day at dusk), but also be sure to actually visit inside the Figge to see the artistic wonders on display, its constantly changing exhibits and Thursday night free offerings.
We should also be grateful such an acclaimed artist made his mark on our town. Villareal over the past two decades has exhibited widely in the U.S. and abroad. His work is in the permanent collections of museums including The Buffalo AKG Art Museum, Buffalo, NY; The Museum of Modern Art, New York City; Naoshima Contemporary Art Museum, Kagawa, Japan; and the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
His permanent, site-specific works include: Star Ceiling (El Paso), El Paso Museum of Art, El Paso, TX; Firmament (Mori), Toranomon Hills Station Tower, Tokyo, Japan; Infinite Composition, Lindemann Performing Arts Center, Brown University, Providence, RI; Fountain (KCI), Kansas City International Airport, Kansas City, Missouri; Light Matrix (Houston), Tilman J. Fertitta Family College of Medicine, University of Houston, Houston, Texas; Volume (Frisco), Dallas Cowboys World Headquarters, Frisco, Texas; Buckyball, Exploratorium, San Francisco, California; Light Matrix (MIT), Morris and Sophie Chang Building, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA; and Volume (Renwick), Renwick Gallery at the Smithsonian American Museum of Art, Washington, D.C.
Multiverse: Leo Villareal's “Multiverse” lights up a tunnel between galleries at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C.
In March 2013, Villareal inaugurated The Bay Lights, a monumental 1.8-mile installation of 25,000 white LED lights on San Francisco's Bay Bridge. In April 2021, Villareal completed Illuminated River, which united nine bridges in central London into a single, monumental work of public art.
Since 2005, the Figge has been an artistic landmark; now it’s a dazzling monument to light and creativity.
Jonathan Turner is a veteran journalist and piano player, who has made the QC home since 1995 and loves writing about arts and culture. He is the author of the books “A Brief History of Bucktown: Davenport's Infamous District Transformed,” and “100 Things To Do in the Quad Cities Before You Die”.