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Keith Sonnier (July 31, 1941 – July 18, 2020) was a postminimalist sculptor, Performance art artist, video and light artist. Sonnier was one of the first artists to use light in sculpture in the 1960s. With his use of neon in combination with ephemeral materials he achieved international recognition. Sonnier was part of the Process Art movement.
He graduated in 1963 from Southwestern Louisiana Institute (now known as the University of Louisiana at Lafayette). In 1966, he graduated with his MFA degree from Rutgers University, where he studied under Allan Kaprow, Robert Watts, and Robert Morris. After graduation from Rutgers, he moved to New York City with Jackie Winsor and some of his former classmates.
At the time of his death he lived in Bridgehampton, New York. Sonnier died in Southampton on July 18, 2020, of MDS (Myelodysplastic syndrome) and complications from it at the age of 78.
His second marriage was in 1987 to Nessia Leonzini Pope, ending in divorce by 1998. He had one child from his second marriage.
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