Over the past six decades, American artist 

 (b. 1939) has become known for his innovative constructions and installations that engage with the experience of light, space, and sound.

Raised in the high desert of Arizona, Wheeler began his career as a painter in the early 1960s while studying at the Chouinard Art Institute (now the California Institute of the Arts) in Los Angeles, and became a pioneer of the so-called “Light and Space” movement that flourished in Southern California in the 1960s and 1970s. Wheeler’s first solo exhibitions were held at the Pasadena Art Museum, Pasadena, California (1968); Ace Gallery, Los Angeles (1970); Galerie Schmela, Düsseldorf (1970); Mizuno Gallery, Los Angeles (1974, 1979); and Galleria Salvatore Ala, Milan (1975). His early environmental work was included in a number of important exhibitions in the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s, such as 

, The Institute for Art and Urban Resources at P.S. 1, New York (1976); 

The First Show: Painting and Sculpture from Eight Collections

, Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles (the Temporary Contemporary) (1983–1984), among others. In 1975, Wheeler’s environmental projects from this period, some existing only as detailed architectural plan drawings, were acquired by Giuseppe Panza di Biumo, the noted Italian collector of American postwar art.

Wheeler’s work has been presented in notable international exhibitions, including 

, Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, Humlebaek, Denmark (1997; traveled to Kunstmuseum Wolfsburg, Germany, Castello di Rivoli, Turin, and UCLA/The Armand Hammer Museum of Art and Cultural Center, Los Angeles, through 1999); 

Changing Perceptions: The Panza Collection at the Guggenheim Museum

, Guggenheim Museum Bilbao (2000–2001); 

, Moderna Museet, Stockholm (2008–2009; traveled to Kunsthaus Zürich as 

Hot Spots: Rio de Janeiro/Milano/Los Angeles 1956–1969

Primary Atmospheres: Works from California 1960–1970

In 2012, the artist exhibited a new “continuum atmospheric environment” at David Zwirner, New York. His work was also featured in 

Phenomenal: California Light, Space, Surface

 at the Museum of Contemporary Art, San Diego, as part of the Getty Research Institute’s 

initiative, in 2011–2012. 49 Nord 6 Est – FRAC Lorraine, Metz, France, presented a solo exhibition of Wheeler’s work in 2012, and his work was included in 

 at the Hayward Gallery, Southbank Centre, London, in 2013. In 2014, a new “rotational horizon” installation by the artist, a culmination of circular works begun in the 1970s, occupied the ground floor of David Zwirner’s West 20th Street location in New York, and, later that year, Wheeler presented a new light environment at Palazzo Grassi in Venice in conjunction with the group exhibition 

 was on view at David Zwirner, New York, and his 1976 PS1 installation was re-created for the anniversary exhibition 

 at MoMA PS1, New York. The following year, the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York presented 

, in which the artist realized a work conceived and drawn in 1971, transforming one of the museum galleries into a hermetic, “semi-anechoic chamber” that reduced ambient sound to imperceptible levels and produced the sensory impression of infinite space, an experience akin to those the artist describes in the vast desert spaces of Northern Arizona and New Mexico.

Wheeler’s work was on view at the Gropius Bau, Berlin, as part of the exhibition 

Welt ohne Außen/World without Exterior. Immersive Spaces since the 1960s

 (2018). Major works by Wheeler were also featured in the group exhibition 

, Copenhagen Contemporary (2021–2022); and 

Light, Space, Surface: Works from the Los Angeles County Museum of Art

, Addison Gallery of American Art, Phillips Academy, Andover, Massachusetts2021; traveled to Frist Art Museum, Nashville, in 2022).

The first major monograph devoted to Wheeler’s work was published in 2020 by David Zwirner Books on the occasion of his 2020 exhibition at David Zwirner, New York. The most comprehensive overview of the artist’s career to date, this publication includes new scholarship by art historian Germano Celant and features extensive illustrations of Wheeler’s most significant works from the early 1960s to the present, as well as never-before-published images, drawings, and other archival material.

Work by the artist is held in prominent museum collections worldwide, including the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, DC; Los Angeles County Museum of Art; Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles; Museum of Contemporary Art, San Diego; Orange County Museum of Art, Newport Beach, California; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York; and the Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam. Wheeler lives and works in Santa Fe and Los Angeles.

Germano Celant, renowned art historian and theoretician, is internationally acknowledged for his theories on Arte Povera. He is also the author of more than one hundred publications and curator of numerous exhibitions for museums and institutions worldwide. He is currently the artistic and scientific superintendent of Fondazione Prada, Milan and Venice, and the curator of both Fondazione Aldo Rossi, Milan, and Fondazione Emilio e Annabianca Vedova, Venice.

Germano Celant

Over five decades, Doug Wheeler has pioneered the art of light and space. His work powerfully explores the way we perceive “empty” space—the way light can affect our perception and make emptiness feel full and dense. From his early experiences flying across the desert with his father, a doctor in Globe, Arizona, Wheeler developed a passion for the intensity and stillness of vast expanses, seeing in them a whole new set of possibilities for visual art.

Although Wheeler began his career as a painter, his wall-mounted artworks soon began incorporating light as a medium and quickly gave way to an unprecedented art-historical breakthrough: his construction of an absolute light environment, crafted in his studio in 1967. Since that unparalleled moment, Wheeler’s work has been exhibited widely all over the world; in the past decade, with numerous major gallery and museum installations, his reputation as the definitive light and space artist has been solidified.

This volume, featuring new scholarship by renowned art historian Germano Celant, traces the entire course of Wheeler’s career to date, from his first mature paintings to his immersive installations. Writing on Wheeler’s intense and direct engagement with the absoluteness in the optical fields he creates, Celant provides a detailed account for Wheeler’s development as one of the most original and influential artists of his generation. Wheeler’s work not only changes how we encounter reality after we see it, but also how we envision what is possible more broadly in visual art.

Doug Wheeler

Doug Wheeler | Books

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