Celeste restaurant in Union Square is playing host to Somerville artist Nicolás Carmona Guzman’s new installation, “Lightforms.” — Photos by Adrian Harrison

By Michael McHugh

Last Saturday, Celeste, a Peruvian restaurant located in Union Square saw the opening reception of a new public art installation by local artist Nicolás Guzman Carmona,  titled Lightforms.

Celeste has earned a reputation not only for serving a great ceviche, but also for collaborating with artists and musicians to create a unique feeling space that celebrates the culture of Peru and leaves a lasting impression on customers.

Lightforms is the newest piece by Carmona, consisting of an array of colorful, geometric pendant lights made of translucent polyester, hanging from Celeste’s lofty ceilings. From his time studying architecture at Syracuse and the Graduate School of Design at Harvard University, Carmona combines his architectural knowledge, experience from working with lighting designers, and his own artistic vision to create a truly distinctive style that can be seen throughout all of his projects.

Fastened together with interlocking petals, the intelligent design of the pendant lights serves as a perfect display of Carmona’s work within the intersection of art and architecture. “Light has the capacity to change what the space feels like, and how you can inhabit it,” explained Carmona. “Thinking about lighting in a residential, domestic, or small commercial context is interesting to me because it affects the day to day.”

The project was undertaken in collaboration with the Somerville Arts Council, who provided a grant to Carmona as part of an ongoing grant program to support local BIPOC artists. “They originated from when COVID started, and we wanted to give money to artists for relief. But it was also in response to the social injustice happening during the time, we felt like we wanted to do more for the BIPOC community in Somerville,” explained Iaritza Menjivar, the Somerville Arts Council’s Event and Public Art Coordinator.

While the grant program has been paused for this summer, they hope to restart it in the fall in order to give the many applicants another opportunity to share their voices.

“There’s just so many artists, designers, and people who really have a really particular opinion about how to liven up a space, and they’re all around us,” said Carmona. “So I think the Somerville Arts Council has a really huge opportunity to fund projects like this by providing resources to create something really special.”