The Great Comet, 2019

Cyanotype on paper, from painted negative, 84 x 215 in.

Courtesy of the artist and Luis De Jesus Los Angeles.

Lia Halloran’s ambitious cyanotype The Great Comet evokes the ancient mysteries of the sky, the nebulous smears, theatrics of light, and inconsiderate appearances of phenomena that befuddled and frightened the ancients while igniting their better curiosities. Her larger body of work, which traces the contributions of women and individual astronomers, extricates closeted triumphs and injustices from history, while ennobling humanity’s endless search for understanding the complexities of the sky.

Cyanotype on paper, from painted negative, 84 x 215 in.

Courtesy of the artist and Luis De Jesus Los Angeles.