Steve McQueen is one of Britain’s most celebrated film-makers, with four critically-acclaimed feature films, including the Academy Award-winning 12 Years a Slave (2013), under his belt. He has been working as a visual artist for much longer, however, creating both small- and large-scale video works, photographs and installations that have been exhibited around the world. This show at Dia Beacon in New York (12 May–April 2025) is next on the list, with McQueen creating an immersive installation in its 30,000-square-foot ground-floor gallery. The work, titled Bass, uses 60 ceiling-mounted lightboxes that slowly shift in colour to explore the spectrum of light, while the music of bass instruments plays throughout the space. The exhibition forms one half of Dia Art Foundation’s 50th anniversary celebrations, with another McQueen work – the two-channel video installation Sunshine State (2022) – being hosted at Dia’s Chelsea location later this year.
Find out more from Dia’s website.
Preview below | View Apollo’s Art Diary
Installation view of Bass (2024) by Steve McQueen at Dia Beacon, New York. Photo: Bill Jacobson Studio; courtesy Dia Art Foundation; © the artist
Bass (2024; detail), Steve McQueen. Photo: Don Stahl; courtesy Dia Art Foundation
Installation view of Bass (2024) by Steve McQueen at Dia Beacon, New York. Photo: Bill Jacobson Studio; courtesy Dia Art Foundation; © the artist