This long-term display brings together a selection of newly acquired work from the late 1960s and early 1970s by Keith Sonnier, highlighting the artist’s experiments across media. During this period Sonnier pursued what he termed “psychologically loaded” industrial materials, referring to those with strong connotations to their non-art usages. The display features mainstays in Sonnier’s practice like cloth, flocking, latex, neon, and satin, which are also commonplace fragments found scattered about the home and the built environment. He combines these elements into uncanny objects and installations. Additionally, the presentation at Dia includes Dis-Play II (1970), a room-sized installation of foam rubber, fluorescent powder, strobe light, black light, neon, and glass, which was previously on view at Dia Bridgehampton from 2018 to 2019. 

Keith Sonnier was born in Mamou, Louisiana, in 1941. He died in Southampton, New York, in 2020.

View profile