Dan Flavin: Grids

EVENT DESCRIPTION

David Zwirner is pleased to announce an exhibition of works by Dan Flavin (1933–1996) featuring the artist’s grids, a key body of work that he began in 1976. As curator Michael Govan observes, the grids count “among the most intense and concentrated of Flavin’s lights.” Constituting one of the artist’s most complex and nuanced chromatic investigations, these constructions are composed of an equal number of vertical fixtures facing backwards and horizontal fixtures facing forwards in varying color combinations. Situated in the corner of a room, they simultaneously project a blend of colors outward towards the viewer and inward into the corner, highlighting the architectural conditions of the space. A version of this exhibition—the first focused examination of this form—was on view at David Zwirner New York in January–February 2026 and the presentation in Hong Kong will include several re-creations of the way in which Flavin installed the grids in significant exhibitions held during his lifetime.

ABOUT THE ARTIST / ORGANISER

Dan Flavin (1933–1996) was born in Queens, New York. He began to devote an increasing amount of time to both making and viewing art during his service in the US Air Force in the mid-1950s. While stationed just outside of New York City, Flavin briefly enrolled at the Hans Hofmann School of Fine Arts as well as the New School for Social Research in 1956, before attending Columbia University where he spent three semesters studying art history. He subsequently worked in the mailroom at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum and as a guard at The Museum of Modern Art before devoting himself primarily to his own practice. David Zwirner has represented the Estate of Dan Flavin since 2009.