By night, Matthew Grimaldi sees the light.
The 28-year-old Chicagoan works, by day, as an apprentice architect at Arcon Associates, an architecture firm in Lombard. After work, he turns into a lighting designer and fabricator.
Evocative of his training in the use of materials and shapes, Grimaldi plays with glass, metal and electricity and ends up with table lamps and wall sconces that are more aptly referred to as illuminated sculpture.
For a wall sconce, he builds a shadow box out of copper strips that he bends and fastens together. Inside, he imbeds a glass composition made from torn strips of glass plus metal, wood or stone pieces. Behind the composition, he places a 60-watt halogen bulb. “It’s a small, teeny, tiny world to look into,” says Grimaldi.
A 4-foot-tall copper pyramid becomes a glowing table sculpture. Glass squares pierce the copper and allow the light bulb inside to emit its rays. “It looks a lot like an apartment building,” says the artist.
“The lighting came about as a way of illuminating the glass compositions that are encased in these things,” explains Grimaldi. “In a way, it’s a way of working with negative and positive space. The glass is an interesting void. The metal is a framework for it.”
Grimaldi’s lighting fixtures cost from $200 to $600 and are available at or through Tech Lighting, 300 W. Superior St., 312-944-1000.
