Playing both with and against neon’s association of glitzy signage, a number of artists in the Bay Area manipulate it as their primary expressive material. Two concurrent exhibitions brought together a total of nine sculptors and together amounted to a mini-survey of the local forms of the genre. Effects ranged from kitschy kinetics to radiant icons, demonstrating that when artists get beyond being mesmerized by the sheer dazzle of the charged gas, they continue to produce constructions that are both inventive and evocative.

The seven artists in “Neon” presented the greatest diversity of approaches.