Master of illusion and metaphor, Ross Bleckner is credited for taking Op Art to a higher spiritual plane. The element of light is a unifying presence and organizing principle in all of his pictorial fields, and his canvases are known for radiating a signature luminescence. From his funerary abstractions of the eighties, to his more recent cellular technique, mortality has been a central theme he has used to explore metaphysical dimensions, and memorialize the impact of the AIDS epidemic in New York.