The Allentown Art Museum recently announced the opening of the exhibition Alteronce Gumby: Dark Matter.

The exhibit opens on Saturday in its upstairs galleries.

Dark Matter explores the formal, material, and conceptual complexity of Gumby’s paintings, which reflect a profound fascination with the cosmos.

Dark Matter, which marks the first solo museum exhibition of Gumby’s work, was assembled mostly from private collections and includes large-format works, some that fluoresce under black light, and early and more recent works that incorporate shards of tempered glass, gemstones, and other unconventional materials.

Dark Matter will continue at the Museum through April 9, 2023.

In his work Gumby employs color as both material and metaphor, deftly harnessing its subtle effects and rich tonal relationships while also exploring color’s capacity to create and convey meaning. By focusing on the power of color to signify, the artist’s practice provokes questions about painting’s relation to larger cultural forces and gestures toward more fundamental issues of identity, agency, and invisibility.

Several of the works on display were created for the exhibition and include in their composition fluorescent minerals sourced from the former Sterling Hill Mine in Ogdensburg, New Jersey.

Ultraviolet lighting in the galleries will allow visitors to experience the glowing colors of these fluorescing minerals.

Gumby was born in Harrisburg and resides in New York City. He received his bachelor of fine arts from Hunter College in 2013 and his masters of fine arts in Painting & Printmaking from Yale School of Art in 2016.

Solo exhibitions of his work have been mounted at Koki Arts, Tokyo, 2022; Bode Projects, Berlin, 2021; Charles Moffett Gallery and False Flag, New York, 2021; Parrasch Heijnen Gallery, Los Angeles, 2020; Long Gallery, New York, 2019; the Fondation des Etats-Unis, Paris, 2017; and elsewhere.

Allentown Art Museum gallery hours are Thursday through Sunday 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. and third Thursdays 11 a.m. to 8 p.m.

Admission to the Allentown Art Museum is free thanks to a generous legacy gift from the Century Fund along with lead support from Lehigh Valley Health Network and City Center Allentown and J.B. and Kathleen Reilly.

Alteronce Gumby will be in attendance at a member Preview and Reception on Friday from 5 until 8 p.m. at the museum.

The artist also will give a talk on Nov. 12, at the museum.

For more information see www.allentownartmsueum.org.