Leo Villareal, 41, is a New York-based artist who works with light. He debuts new work in Washington this month: Leo Villareal: New Work opens on Friday at Conner Contemporary Art and his installation in the concourse walkway between the East and West Buildings of the National Gallery of Art is already underway and expected to be complete by late fall. The NGA installation will be on view for a year, and consists of approximately 42,000 computer-programmed LED nodes that run through the hallway.

What drew you to working with light?

I was working with technology and programming doing virtual reality research and I had this moment when I realized that I could make an interesting work of art with a small amount of information. Light allowed me to visually manifest the code I was writing and I wouldn’t have to work on a screen — there was no computer screen or projector.

Have you ever worked in other media?

I worked with sound and did some experimentation with other things, but light is what I’m most attracted to.