Photo: Alice BL Durigatto
Artist Gabriel Dawe is creating rainbows indoors again. Continuing his dazzling Plexus series, the renowned creative has recently installed Plexus no. 46 as part of a group show at Villa Manin in Italy. The exhibition is titled Transparent Architectures (Architteture Trasparenti) and features Dawe’s work alongside incredible artists, including Christina Kubisch, Robert Irwin, Pat White, and Jeppe Hein.
As in his previous Plexus pieces, Dawe uses a full spectrum of hues to create an interplay of light and perceived color. Delicate threads are stretched across a partially walled space, and they crisscross to create new hues in the process (thanks to optical mixing). As the light shines on and through the threads, the unified components create a singular dazzling piece that evokes joy.
Transparent Architectures is a journey through contemporary art inspired by the concept of a border. A border is a geographic line—a boundary—but it’s also a mental space. In the context of this exhibition, it’s viewed as a “crossable limit, which can be crossed with the gaze or body.” This ties in with Dawe’s work. Although we can’t step into Plexus no. 46, we can traverse the structure in our mind.
Dawe began creating the Plexus series as an extension of his embroidery practice and experimenting with thread on an architectural scale. “That component started surfacing at the beginning, how buildings and clothing both have the function of sheltering,” he explained to My Modern Met in a previous interview. “But then when you use the material of the clothing on an architectural scale, you lose that physical sheltering quality, but it gets transformed into this very childlike quality. It becomes like a sheltering of the soul in that way.”
You can see Plexus no. 46 as part of Transparent Architectures (Architteture Trasparenti) at Villa Manin until October 26, 2025. While there, you can take in the history of the location. “Villa Manin is a palace about one and a half hours north of Venice, and built by the last Venetian Doge,” Dawe tells My Modern Met, “and that’s where Napoleon stayed for two months while negotiating a peace treaty when he defeated the Venetian Republic.”
Artist Gabriel Dawe is creating rainbows indoors again.
Photo: Alice BL Durigatto
Continuing his dazzling Plexus series, the renowned creative has recently installed Plexus no. 46 as part of a group show at Villa Manin in Italy.
Photo: Alice BL Durigatto
A full spectrum of hues creates an interplay of light and perceived color.
Photo: Alice BL Durigatto
Delicate threads are stretched across a partially walled space, and they crisscross to create new hues in the process.
Photo: Alice BL Durigatto
As the light shines on and through the threads, the unified components create a singular dazzling piece that evokes joy.
Photo: Alice BL Durigatto
See Plexus no. 46 as part of Transparent Architectures (Architteture Trasparenti) until October 26, 2025.
Photo: Alice BL Durigatto
