Liza Lou debuts new artworks in New York that transform thousands of glass beads into brushstrokes, with a surprising textural effect.

Artist Liza Lou’s new exhibition Painting at Lehmann Maupin Gallery in New York debuts 12 new works made from tens of thousands of colorful glass beads that resemble brushstrokes. It’s a color and texture surprise that offers more intrigue the closer you view ? a hybrid between paint and pixels, light and extreme physicality. Inspired by her experience viewing paint through a microscope, Liza Lou again pushes her signature material into fresh and unexpected possibilities.
Liza Lou, Gravity’s Rainbow, 2024 \ Courtesy the artist and Lehmann Maupin, New York, Seoul, and London
Liza Lou, Gravity’s Rainbow, 2024 (detail) For over three decades, Liza Lou has shocked and dazzled the contemporary art world with her room-sized installations of glass beads. Her full-sized hyper-color Kitchen (1991-1996) for example, took five years to construct with millions of beads and drew crowds (again) at a recent exhibition at the Whitney Museum. And just last week, the Brooklyn Museum installed her 40-foot Trailer (1998-2000) in their entry pavilion ? inviting viewers to peer, one at a time, into a real 1949 mobile home with an eerie and unbelievable fully-beaded interior.
Liza Lou, Idyl, 2024 \ Courtesy the artist and Lehmann Maupin, New York, Seoul, and London
Liza Lou, Idyl, 2024 (detail)
Lou again pushes into new ground in h...