Kelsey Fernkopf and Steve Gilbert, Magic Meadow, 2025, Archival pigment print, wood frame with a plywood backer under museum glass, 60 x 84 x 180 in

Kelsey Fernkopf is a visual artist who creates site-responsive light installations using luminous neon glass tubing. Drawing on more than three decades of experience fabricating neon, he places geometric neon forms in forests, open landscapes, and urban environments. Situated in unexpected surroundings, his site-responsive work reveals each location through immersive, radiant forms that echo architectural fragments and operate as symbolic markers. Encountered in the wild, these installations are both phenomenological and threshold-like: ephemeral points of arrival that alter perception and soften the distinction between here and there, between nature and the neon element itself.

Steve Gilbert translates these transient installations into digital archival pigment prints. His photographic sensitivity captures the sculptural and spatial qualities of the work, as well as the unique luminosity of neon. His images are not simply documents, but extensions of the work itself. His photographs hold the tension between presence and disappearing, capturing moments where luminescent form and environment briefly converge. They suggest temporal openings to other worlds, preserving the experiential threshold while transforming it into a lasting contemplative form.