Born and raised in Jamaica, Queens, Tom Lloyd was a political activist, teacher, community organizer—and an innovator in the history of art and technology. He created electronically programmed, kinetic light sculptures from industrial materials. Explaining how he was “turned on” to using light as a medium, Lloyd said: “Light is part of our everyday lives. We communicate by light. We can’t help but notice TV, lighting in general—Broadway, traffic lights, car headlights.”
In 1968 his work was the subject of the inaugural exhibition of the Studio Museum in Harlem, which was founded to celebrate artists of African descent. Realized for that show, Veleuro was created by engineering four modular arrays of lights that blink on and off in different colors based on preprogrammed sequences. The bulbs, which are concealed by semitransparent plastic lenses reminiscent of Buick taillight covers, produce rapidly moving light patterns. Named after a racehorse, Veleuro is a key example of Lloyd’s transformation of sculpture and painting—traditionally static mediums—into dynamic experiences of light and motion.
