Conceptualizing the Multiverse: Josiah McElheny, David Weinberg, and Michael Govan

Join artist Josiah McElheny, astrophysicist David Weinberg, and LACMA director Michael Govan as they explore the multiverse—the idea that countless universes exist alongside our own—embodied in Josiah McElheny's striking installation Island Universe, currently on view in the Resnick Pavilion. They will discuss our evolving understanding of this fascinating concept and representations of coexisting universes. Presented alongside Josiah McElheny: Island Universe and Mapping the Infinite: Cosmologies Across Cultures.

Josiah McElheny is a sculptor, performance artist, writer and filmmaker who investigates the history of modernism in hopes of expanding on its dominant narratives of aesthetics, politics, and culture, and the criticality of our relationship to them. Recognized for his conceptually rigorous approach, and physical mastery of materials, such as glass, McElheny explores vastly-ranging topics from astronomical cosmology and the infinite, to under-recognized artists or oeuvres. His practice mines the past to lay the groundwork for a path forward, giving a glimpse into not only what could have been, but visions for what might be.

McElheny has exhibited widely including surveys at the Wexner Center for the Arts, Columbus, Ohio and the Institute for Contemporary Art in Boston, Massachusetts, as well as exhibitions at The Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, Madrid, Moderna Museet, Stockholm, Madison Square Park, New York, and the Museum of Modern Art, New York. In addition to monographs on his work, McElheny has created and edited numerous book projects of new scholarship and is a frequent contributor to publications such as Artforum, Cabinet, and Bomb Magazine. In 2006 he was the recipient of a MacArthur Foundation Fellowship. 

David Weinberg, Distinguished University Professor at The Ohio State University, studies the large scale structure of the universe, dark energy and dark matter, the formation and evolution of galaxies and quasars, and the intergalactic medium (IGM). He is well-known for his development of “halo occupation” methods to connect observed galaxy clustering to underlying dark matter structure, for theoretical modeling and cosmological applications of the Lyman-alpha forest, and for numerical simulation studies of the mechanisms of galaxy growth. His work includes a book-length review of Observational Probes of Cosmic Acceleration, examining the methods and prospects for next-generation dark energy experiments. His academic honors include the OSU Distinguished Scholar Award (2006), the Henry L. Cox Professorship (2013-2018), the Berkeley Prize of the American Astronomical Society (2015), the Dannie Heineman Prize for Astrophysics of the American Astronomical Society and the American Institute of Physics (2021), and election to the National Academy of Sciences (2023). He has been chair of the Astronomy Department since 2015.