Art in the Atrium: Gabriel Dawe’s Plexus No. 47

April 15, 2026–April 30, 2028
Atrium

Gabriel Dawe’s Plexus No. 47 is composed of long arrangements of colored threads zigzagging across the Frist Art Museum’s atrium like refracted beams of light. Illuminated by the clerestory windows above, these threads are so close together that they may seem to blend in the eyes of the beholder, appearing as a colorful mist. Like other works in Dawe’s Plexus series, this installation evokes the spectrum of hues that occurs as light is dispersed by a glass prism or when a rainbow forms after a storm. While Plexus No. 47 is rooted in the science of optics, it also echoes Karl Marx’s poetic reflection that “all that is solid melts into air,” an affirmation that nothing is fixed— neither materials nor belief systems.

Plexus No. 47 may evoke the stained-glass windows of cathedrals, in which colored light seems to issue from a heavenly source, inviting congregants to join together in spiritual reverie. While the installation is not intended to trigger a religious experience, it may similarly inspire a shared experience of the sublime. The artist says, “I can offer the viewer . . . a glimmer of hope that brings us closer to the transcendent, to show that there can be beauty in this messed up world we live in. Light comes to symbolize unity and wholeness.”

Organized by the Frist Art Museum

Commission generously supported by

Sara and Richard Bovender