On View through December 15, 2026
Jyll Bradley [13]
Portal (for Silver Eel Cove)
Aluminum, edgelit plexiglass, hardware
Documentation
About
Jyll Bradley’s Portal (for Silver Eel Cove) is a light and space sculpture that responds to Silver Eel Cove as a place of passage, gathering, arrival, and departure. Fabricated in aluminum and fluorescent green Plexiglass, the work is both object and threshold: a pared-back architectural form that frames the surrounding landscape while creating a place to enter, pause, and look outward. Bradley’s practice explores the relationship between light, place, and memory and Portal brings those concerns into direct conversation with the cove’s shifting conditions of sun, tide, ferry traffic, and public life.
Set atop the concrete plinth at the entrance to Silver Eel Cove, Portal acts as a permeable pavilion. Its open structure invites visitors to move around and through it, creating a small civic space for reflection, conversation, shelter, storytelling, poetry, and informal gathering. Rather than imposing a fixed narrative on the site, the work gives shape to the qualities already present there: movement between land and sea, moments of waiting and welcome, and the charged feeling of being both inside and outside at once.
The sculpture’s fluorescent Plexiglass is highly responsive to light. Throughout the day, its green edges catch and intensify the sun, casting color across the plinth and its surrounding surfaces. In this way, Portal functions almost like a sundial, marking time through changing light, shadow, and atmosphere. As the seasons shift between May and December, the work will continue to change in appearance, alternately becoming a frame, a shelter, a beacon, and a space of transformation.
Portal (for Silver Eel Cove) is the thirteenth temporary public sculpture commissioned by Lighthouse Works. The 2026 commission was selected through a community-led process in which a committee of Fishers Island residents chose Bradley’s proposal from a shortlist of five artists. Marking Bradley’s first public commission in the United States, Portal extends Lighthouse Works’ commitment to bringing ambitious contemporary art into meaningful dialogue with the landscape and community of Fishers Island.
Portal (for Silver Eel Cove) will be on view at Silver Eel Cove from May 24 through December 15, 2026. An opening celebration will be held on Sunday, May 24 from 5-7pm. Champagne and oysters will be served.
Lighthouse Works and Jyll Bradley would like to thank the following for their support in the realisation of Portal (for Silver Eel Cove) - Isaac Zal and 4th State Metals (U.S), Jody Elff (U.S.), Ben Godber (UK), David Maclean and Family (UK) and Dr Harrie Cedar (UK). Especial thanks to Priscilla Vail Caldwell (U.S.) for making invaluable connections. We are grateful to Stacey McCarthy, Eric Gomez, Cliff Anderson, and Pierce Rafferty for serving on the community selection panel, and to the supporters of Lighthouse Works whose generosity makes this work possible.
Artist
Bio
Jyll Bradley (b.1966, Folkestone, UK) is a British artist based in London who works across installation, photography, sculpture, film and performance. Her practice combines the formal vigour of Minimalism with ideas of queerness, light, cultivation and community. Bradley studied Fine Art at Goldsmiths’ College (1985-88) and the Slade School of Art (1991-93). Her acclaimed large-scale public works, using her signature material of fluorescent plexiglass include The Hop (2022) commissioned by the Hayward Gallery and Green/Light (for M.R.) (2014) for the 2014 Folkestone Triennial. Bradley's installations often become sites for creative collaboration including performance, music and film reflecting her interest in art as a potent gathering place for diverse people and ideas.
Jyll Bradley has presented exhibitions and projects worldwide for over 35 years. Her most recent exhibitions include her survey Running and Returning, The Box, (Plymouth, UK, 2025); Frieze Sculpture (London, UK, 2023); Threshold, (Kaunas, Lithuania, 2022) and Pardes, The Fruitmarket Gallery (Edinburgh, UK, 2021). Bradley’s forthcoming exhibitions for 2026 include the Whitechapel Gallery, London, UK.
Bradley’s monograph Running and Returning was published by Kulturalis in 2025. Her work is held in major public collections including the Government Art Collection, UK; Arts Council Collection, UK; the Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool, UK; The Faith Museum, UK and the National Library of Australia; as well as significant private collections internationally.