Wolfgang Buttress: NINFEO (EXPLORATIONS, STUDIES AND RESPONSES)

Les Yeux du Monde is pleased to present NINFEO (EXPLORATIONS, STUDIES AND RESPONSES), a solo exhibition of new work by internationally recognized British artist Wolfgang Buttress. On view from Friday, October 10 through Sunday, November 16, the exhibition is orchestrated in conjunction with SENSEMAKING: A Symposium on Contemplative Technologies, hosted by the University of Virginia’s Contemplative Sciences Center.

The exhibition opens with a reception on Friday, October 10, 5–7PM, with remarks from the artist at 6PM. A private preview for Symposium attendees will take place the evening prior, Thursday, October 9, 5–7PM, also featuring remarks by the artist.

Wolfgang Buttress is widely celebrated for immersive, multisensory artworks that draw from the rhythms of the natural world, often transforming scientific data into light and sound. His acclaimed public installation The Hive—originally created for the UK Pavilion at the 2015 Milan Expo and now permanently installed at London’s Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew—remains a landmark work within his practice, having won 27 national and international awards.

At UVA, Buttress recently completed NINFEO, a monumental installation at the heart of the University’s new Contemplative Sciences Center composed of 3320 laser-etched and illuminated crystal blocks. Inspired by the elemental beauty of The Dell pond and the water lilies that inhabit it, NINFEO translates the pond’s natural movements into a sensorial experience, as ever-changing patterns of light and sound play through the glowing glass blocks. Working in collaboration with Karman Line Collective, Buttress developed a site-specific soundscape in which a buoy floating in The Dell gathers real-time environmental data through infrared cameras and movement sensors. This data triggers a continuously evolving composition, producing a living score that mirrors the rhythms of the pond itself—an ongoing dialogue between site, artwork, and audience.

Buttress’s exhibition at LYDM brings together drawings, paintings, and music that both informed and respond to NINFEO. Early watercolor sketches of water lilies—on view publicly for the first time—trace the genesis of the work, while a suite of paintings made with elemental materials such as oil paint, wax, graphite, and even water lily seeds and petals, suggesting portals beyond the picture plane, extend its impact. “I am interested in trying to illuminate the invisible and play with the boundaries of 2D and 3D,” Buttress notes, “the paintings not only express the site, but are somehow of the site itself.” The exhibition also features a selection from the collaborative soundscape with Karman Line Collective, infusing the gallery with the sensory experience of the work. 

Wolfgang Buttress has created major installations for National Museums Liverpool and the Speed Art Museum in Louisville, among other significant institutions. His practice spans sculpture, painting, drawing, sound, and architectural collaboration, and often emerges through deep dialogue with scientists, musicians, and environmentalists. Across four decades, his work has sought harmony between form, function, meaning, and aesthetics—bridging the natural and the sublime.