Serpentine Galleries has unveiled a new public sculpture by Jesús Rafael Soto in Kensington Gardens, marking the first outdoor presentation of the Venezuelan artist’s work in the U.K.
On view near Serpentine South from June 16th through October 25th, Pénétrable BBL Jaune (1999; 2023 Edition) launches the institution’s summer program. The work consists of 4,000 yellow PVC strands suspended from a rectangular steel framework spanning 10 meters. As visitors walk through the sculpture, the strands shift and flicker, creating optical illusions that change according to the viewer’s movement and position.
Soto conceived Pénétrable BBL Jaune in 1999. The sculpture was relaunched as an edition by the artist’s estate in 2023 to mark the centenary of his birth. The work is part of Soto’s renowned “Pénétrables” series, which he began in 1967 and continued to develop in different sizes and colors across his career.
Born in Venezuela in 1923, Soto moved to Paris in 1950, where he became part of a generation of artists experimenting with motion, perception, and industrial materials. In 1955, he participated in the landmark exhibition “Le Mouvement” at Galerie Denise René alongside artists including Alexander Calder, Marcel Duchamp, and Victor Vasarely, a defining moment in the development of kinetic art.
“Contrary to what we have always believed, space is not something that is filled with objects,” Soto said in a 2004 conversation with Serpentine artistic director Hans Ulrich Obrist. “Objects are in fact filled with space.”
This summer also marks the 25th edition of the Serpentine Pavilion. This presentation continues Serpentine’s long-running commitment to placing art outside its gallery walls, within the surrounding Kensington Gardens. The installation joins other current outdoor projects at Serpentine, including Giuseppe Penone’s Albero folgorato (Thunderstruck Tree, 2012), installed on the plinth at Serpentine South, and David Hockney’s large-scale printed mural A Year in Normandie (Detail) at Serpentine North.
