Carol Salmanson creates light-based installations, sculptures, and wall pieces—layered geometric compositions that illuminate their surroundings with vibrant color.
Carol Salmanson works with light and reflective materials to create installations, sculptures, and wall pieces. Her work forms complex layered geometric compositions that radiate color out into their surroundings. Salmanson’s public window installations and sculptures have been seen in Russia, New York, and New Jersey, most recently in Manhattan in 2018. Her latest solo exhibitions were “Light Spills and Sprites” at Guild Gallery II (NY) in 2022, and “Two Sides to a Coin” at SL Gallery (NY) in 2018. In addition to her extensive solo, two-person, and group exhibition history nationally and internationally, she has curated and co-curated shows as well, including “Fire and Water” in the fall of 2022. Salmanson earned a B.S. from Carnegie-Mellon University and an M.B.A. from the University of Chicago; she subsequently studied art in New York City at the Arts Students League, School of Visual Arts, and National Academy of Fine Arts’ Abbey Mural Workshop Fellowship program. Awards include a grant from the United States Department of State, and residencies at the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts and the American Academy in Rome. She currently serves on the Board of Trustees for Independent Curators International, and the Hearing Health Foundation, and previously served for sixteen years as Board Vice President of NURTUREart Non-Profit, Inc.
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DAY BY DAY
DAY BY DAY was a collaboration with choreographer Danielle Diniz in the non-profit Norte Maar’s CounterPointe11, an annual performance pairing seven artists with seven contemporary ballet choreographers. Danielle Diniz created a beautiful ballet with five dancers, set to Philip Glass’s Piano Concerto No. 1, “Tirol”: Movement III, performed by the LGT Young Soloists, recorded in 2021.
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![WATER BUBBLES]()
WATER BUBBLES
Commissioned by the non-profit Cultural Transit, Water Bubbles was a light installation in twenty windows of the White Tower, a 98-foot Constructivist landmark in Yekaterinburg, Russia. The piece referenced the tower’s original function as a water source, using circles and rectangles of light to unite its unique window shapes. In doing so, it celebrated Russia’s cultural heritage and the tower’s place in the history of modernism.
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TRI-QUADULAR CONE
Tri-Quadular Cone’s four sides are each faced with a different color of reflective road sign material. By day, the shape, color and reflective nature of the sheeting are seen. At night, hidden colored light beamed onto the sheeting creates an entirely different, multi-hued glowing artwork.
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WAITING GAME
Waiting Game, a Finalist’s Proposal for Denver’s RTD, is a light show for those times when commuters wait for their train while trains moving the other way come and go, creating delightful entertainment in place of frustration.
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DIAPHANY
This window installation at Mixed Greens Gallery in New York used the building’s architecture as its starting point, incorporating mullions, sills, and fire escape into its geometry. 2,642 LEDs joined with the hard edges and soft blends of gel filters to change the experience of the urban street.
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TROY GLOW
Three of the artworks in the series Light Spills were commissioned to be placed in the windows of the historic downtown Pioneer Savings Bank for the 2024 edition of the annual light festival in Troy, NY. The artworks were perfectly proportioned for the windows. Custom aluminum frames were built to support the artworks.
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![TRI-QUADULAR CONES, garden rendering]()
TRI-QUADULAR CONES
This visualization has multiples of Tri-Quadular Cone
In this nighttime rendering the sculptures are of varying heights.
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LOT'S EX-WIFE at Rock St
This architecturally-based sculpture is made of fluorescent-edged plexiglass and prismatic reflective sheeting manufactured for road signs to glow without the use of electricity. Its form was inspired by Soviet concrete architecture.
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LUMINOUS LAYERS AT SAFE-T GALLERY
Luminous Layers at Safe-T Gallery was an installation that had staggered walls with hidden light, and fixtures with different colors of LEDs beamed through prism rods for a jewel-like effect.
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LUMINOUS LAYERS AT DAM STUHLTRAGER GALLERY
Luminous Layers at Dam Stuhltrager Gallery, was a structure in the shape of a Figure 8 and had staggered walls with hidden light, and fixtures with different colors of LEDs beamed through prism rods for a jewel-like effect. The LEDs reflected onto iridescent walls, adding a soft glow to the overall experience.
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Upon Reflection
Five stainless steel boxes whose recessed centers are lined with hidden fluorescent lights, and faced with LEDs beamed through prism rods for a jewel-like effect. The lights’ reflection is caught in the stainless steel on either side. The boxes form a column to evoke a totemic, ethereal sensation.
Smaller Works
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ARCANGLES
Arcangles are wall-mounted light sculptures made with layers that each have different kinds of LEDs and color on their fronts and backs. Their multiple forms create asymmetrical compositions, painted with reflective colors. When the artworks’ lights are off the colors and reflective nature of their surfaces are visible.
30in x 10in x 4in
LEDs, gel filters, paint, medium density fiberboard.
2025 -
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UPSTATE ART WEEKEND, 2025
"COLOR WHEELS" during UPSTATE ART WEEKEND 2025
Callisto Farm
High Falls, NY 12440 -
![An image of The Float House]()
UNION SQUARES
Union Squares overlapping rectangles of light and road sign material give an indeterminate sensation of depth while also appearing to vibrate.
LEDs, Reflective Sheeting, Plexi
29in x 43in x 2.75in
2022 -
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DOUBLE DIAMOND
Shown here with "COLOR WHEELS" during UPSTATE ART WEEKEND
Callisto Farm
LEDs, gel filters, reflective Sheeting, acrylic paint, plexiglass
15inH x 124inW x 12.19inD -
![An image of The Cultural Center.]()
SPRITES
SPRITES 8, 5 and 10 shown with “Color Wheels" during UPSTATE ART WEEKEND
at CallistoFarm
www.callistohudsonvalley.com
2037 Lucas Turnpike
High Falls, NY 12440 -
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TRIANGULATION
Part of the Prism Series, which are tabletop sculptures that challenge the idea of monumentality. They range in height from 12.5 to 26 inches, yet are perceived as huge. Light is volume without mass: in contrast to large, solid sculpture, which may be confrontational, you can move through the space it inhabits.
These sculptures are beautiful whether their lights are on or off.
LEDs, prism rods, reflective sheeting, aluminum, paint, polycarbonate
14inH x 16inW x 15inD
2023 -
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ELEVATIONS
Part of the Prism Series, which are tabletop sculptures that challenge the idea of monumentality. Light is volume without mass: in contrast to large, solid sculpture, which may be confrontational, you can move through the space it inhabits.
These sculptures are beautiful whether their lights are on or off.
LEDs, prism rods, reflective sheeting, aluminum, paint, polycarbonate
14inH x 16inW x 15inD
2024 -
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PILGRIMAGE
Pilgrimage is a ziggurat-like transparent sculpture with small LED light constructions cascading up and down its plastic steps. Segments of clear plastic were pieced together to build a journey of light on a prism of staircases.
LEDs, wire, transparent corner guards
21" H x 43" W x 43" D
2014 -
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COLOR IN BLACK & WHITE
These wall pieces are made with layers of white reflective sheeting and black plexi “lines” that have colored light behind them. When the lights are off they have black and white forms that are reminiscent of architectural details found in medieval, baroque, and classical architecture. They bring these decorative elements into contemporary art with a minimalist, austere feel, but when the backlighting turns on, the color that surrounds the viewer is anything but, evoking rich and romantic emotions.
LEDs, Plexi, Reflective Sheeting, Sintra
2021
