This week, GBH Executive Arts Editor Jared Bowen heads into the light at the Addison Gallery and gets a fresh look at ancient civilizations.

The 1960s saw New York as a champion of the arts world with the rise of minimalism and pop art. Meanwhile, a new generation of arts pioneers in Southern California began to capture light using different materials like sheet acrylic, fiberglass and polyester resin. The molding of light using uncommon art mediums created a new toolset still used by artists today. The Addison Gallery's "Light, Space, Surface" exhibit, on loan from the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, explores this time period and the artists who drove this innovative practice.

"You walk into these spaces and suddenly you feel your eyes start to shift," Bowen says. "It's almost as if a mist has settled over you. Nothing has changed in the room, but it's you. It's your perception that's changing, and it's just a bewildering experience."

Light, Space, Surface: Works from the Los Angeles County Museum of Art on view at the Addison Gallery of American Art through March 20

MFA has unveiled their reimagined galleries featuring the work of ancient Greece, Rome and the Byzantine Empire. Bowen is drawn particularly to the open design, which allows viewers to slow down and appreciate each artifact.

Gods and Goddesses Gallery for Greek and Roman art in December 2021 at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
George D. and Margo Behrakis Gallery featuring several white marble statues.
Photograph © Museum of Fine Arts, Boston Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

"I think part of the existential part for me and experiencing this is to look at it and realize that these are people who were making objects. They were making representations of the gods to get through difficult times," he says. "And so you look at this and you realize that if they could do it thousands of years ago, we can certainly do it today."

3D rendering of Athena Parthenos Statue
Rendering of Athena Parthenos statue as it may have looked in the mid-fifth century BCE.
Image courtesy Black Math Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. Classical Department Exchange Fund

The MFA goes beyond the white marble statues known to today's audiences by introducing revolutionary technology into the galleries that uses augmented reality to display what the museum believes these statues looked like in their time. For some statues, like the famous "Athena Parthenos," small traces of color are even visible to the human eye.

ART OF THE ANCIENT WORLD on view now at the Museum of Fine Arts

What art events are you looking forward to? Tell Jared about it on Facebook or Twitter!