While attending the annual conference of the College Art Association in New York during the middle of February, I learned that Peter Lapsley, the former director of the Bermuda Society of Arts was participating in a group exhibition held at the Heidi Cho Gallery, entitled ‘Slow Dance’, and that the opening was to take place while I was in New York.

All the exhibiters were MFA students from the Parsons School of Design. This provided me an opportunity to support a fellow Bermudian and, upon entering the gallery on opening night, I noticed that several other Bermudians were in attendance as well. These included the Edwin Smiths, Judy Wong and Sophie Cressel.

For many in the Bermuda art community, Peter Lapsley is well known, as is his work, for he has been a frequent exhibiter in various art venues around the Island, but this past Autumn he moved to New York to pursue graduate studies at the Parsons School of Design.

Although he has only been studying at Parsons for just over a semester, I was curious to see what impact his studies might have had upon his current work.

Attending an art college provides opportunity to explore various techniques, tools, styles and materials and from what I saw of Mr. Lapsley’s single contribution to this group exhibition, he is doing just that.

Lapsley’s single piece in the exhibition is a minimal sculpture, consisting of a wedge-like appendage of welded steel that thrust out at an angle from the wall. I was reminded of the work of Donald Judd, who made a name for himself a few decades back with similar creations.

In Judd’s case though, interest was heightened by the fact that he made multiple units that were always the same in shape and materials, and then lined up in rows along the wall or floor. This Lapsley did not do and this is not unexpected, given the institutions limitations in time and materials.

What he did do to increase interest, was to build into the work a small electric light that normally was seen only as a slight glow that emanated from the bottom of the sculpture. It was so subtle that it was at first undetected and the work’s cast shadow, which was really, an extension of the sculpture was what one perceived, but then this soft orange-coloured glow gradually intruded upon one’s perception.

This aspect of the work brought to mind the work of Dan Flavin who was a contemporary of Judd’s and was likewise associated with the Minimalist school.

Flavin is known for his constructions made with florescent tubes and in his case, the soft glow of light is the dominant aspect of the work.

In a gallery situation, with all the multiple track lights arranged around the ceiling, the shadows cast from Lapsley’s work were complex stepped gradations of light, which moved from its lightest step at the perimeter and then, by increasingly darker steps, to the darkest middle of the shadow. This I found fascinating, but in conversation with Mr. Lapsley, he expressed some dissatisfaction with the arrangement. It was his wish to have it otherwise, but felt he had to compromise because of the way the gallery was arranged.

The Heidi Cho Gallery is located on 23rd street in Manhattan.

The exhibition continues through March 10.