Beacon (2023), a tall, linear sculpture divides spatial darkness. With two diagonal ends sitting neatly, electrical current flows inside the phosphor, mineral-coated glass. Beacon quietly illuminates the space, highlighting a poetic and alchemical dialogue among light, air and architecture. Its warm presence conveys the transformative power of movement and the potential for renewal, rewarding the viewer with a gentle glow that resembles the transient state of drifting in and out of a dream.

Made in a glass shop in Brooklyn, the neon glass is hand blown by Le, whose body movements determine the forms. An intensely intuitive process–heating and bending the glass tubes into unique shapes and breathing air into the tubes by mouth–conveys a feeling intrinsic to Le’s aesthetic sensibility: the delicate balance between life and play. Even though neon is solidly located in a twentieth-century landscape of consumption, the process gestures towards the medieval practice of alchemy—the transmutation of gas and metal through flame. The density of meaning behind neon—social, psychological, historical and mystical—adds an aspect of tension to Le’s sculptures. The excess of content is at odds with the simplicity of the final form. The transformation of elemental materials and the sheer physicality of production imbue the work with a bodily and psychic presence. “It’s about life and playfulness, showing life-giving forces in a dark world,” she has stated.

Annesta Le is a multimedia artist living and working in Brooklyn, NY. Le left the University of Texas, where she was studying computer science, and, following intensive work with a Jungian psychoanalyst and a life-altering visit to the Brazilian rainforest, she shifted from occasional drawing and painting at home to a rigorous studio practice. As the daughter of Vietnamese immigrants, the work of positioning herself vis a vis society and finding ways to translate her inner life is an ongoing process reflected in her work in ways that are—like any human subject—constantly undergoing change. Her work can be divided into two very different and occasionally overlapping practices: sculpting in illuminated neon and drawing on paper and canvas. Le has exhibited in New York, Chicago and Turin, among other cities. She is the recipient of a grant from the Peter S. Reed Foundation and has been featured in publications such as Slow + Sustain magazine, Art Master, Vogue and Fortuna magazine, Japan.