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Leonardo DiCaprio Donates Cool Climate Change Art To LACMA
Leo's gift to LACMA at Lincoln Center last year (Photo by Iñaki Vinaixa/Courtesy of Lincoln Center)
We've known Leonardo DiCaprio to be an ardent supporter of LACMA and environmental issues, and now the star is combining both passions by purchasing a massive climate change-themed art installation for the L.A. museum.
DiCaprio is purchasing "Solar Reserve (Tonopah, Nevada)", a large-scale work of art that will be displayed at LACMA sometime in the near future. The installation is a towering 28-by-24-foot LED wall that displays visually-stunning, video game-like views of a solar thermal power plant in Nevada. The artwork is intended to raise awareness about climate change, a topic that DiCaprio spoke about last year at the U.N. Climate Change summit. DiCaprio recently commented on why he thought it was important for the installation to appear at LACMA:
Whether it is through art or other venues, we must work to promote a healthy and sustainable future for our planet and I hope to continue to bring additional exhibits to Los Angeles and beyond that promote this message.
"Solar Reserve (Tonopah, Nevada)" uses 3-D technology to digitally simulate constantly rotating views of the power plant, according to the L.A. Times. The plant, located northwest of Las Vegas, consists of 10,000 mirrors that move with the sun, reflecting light on a central tower to generate electricity. When LACMA visitors approach the enormous wall, they will be able to watch a real-time simulation of the actual movements of the mirrors, as well as the sun, moon, and stars, as they would appear in Nevada.
The art installation was created by Dublin-born artist John Gerrard, who is known for other gigantic real-time computer simulations. Before heading to LACMA, the "Solar Reserve (Tonopah, Nevada)" installation will be on view at Art Basel in Switzerland this month. And last year, the huge wall was exhibited in front of Lincoln Center in New York. Exactly when the wall will head to LACMA has yet to be announced.
In the meantime, you can get a sense of the scale of the installation and what it looks like by checking out this video from Lincoln Center:
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