A permanent public art installation in Lakewood, Colorado, transforms a local train station into a place of striking beauty with ever-shifting beams of colored light. Ivan Toth Depeña’s Color Field, comprising 18 steel and concrete tree-like sculptures topped with panels of tempered, colored glass, was installed on May 17.

When illuminated by the sun’s rays, the installation casts colored shadows (of up to 100 feet long) across the station’s ramps, stairs, and walkways. At night, the colored glass is back-lit by LED lights, continuing to project abstract, kaleidoscopic fields of color in the space.

Ivan Toth Depeña, Color Field (2014), Federal Center Station, Lakewood, Colorado.
Photo: courtesy the artist.

“I want the sculpture to change constantly and to have a direct relationship with the landscape and the solar system,” said Depeña in an interview with the Creators Project. “Color Field will not be the same in the morning as it will be in the afternoon. It will not be the same this week as it will be next month.”

Color Field, commissioned by Denver’s Regional Transportation District with the support of the city of Lakewood, is permanently on view at the Federal Center Station in Lakewood.

Ivan Toth Depeña, Color Field (2014), Federal Center Station, Lakewood, Colorado.
Photo: courtesy the artist.

Ivan Toth Depeña, Color Field (2014), Federal Center Station, Lakewood, Colorado.
Photo: courtesy the artist.

Ivan Toth Depeña, Color Field (2014), Federal Center Station, Lakewood, Colorado.
Photo: courtesy the artist.