by Cate McQuaid, Globe Correspondent

A detailed view of sculptor Beth Galston's "Luminous Garden (Aerial)"

Getting ethereal

Sculptor Beth Galston has spent years working with light, and in recent years she's been building gardens out of it. "Luminous Garden (Aerial)" at Boston Sculptors Gallery is the sixth "Luminous Garden" environment and the most ethereal of the ones I have seen. Her father, a scientist who researched the interaction of plants and light, has influenced her work; both of her parents died in recent months, and Galston dedicates this lovely, ethereal piece to them.

She sets tiny amber lights in cast-resin acorn caps, which hover over and amid tangles of delicate wire in a darkened room. Each little cluster of acorn buds seems to defy gravity; this looks more like a gathering of fairies than a garden. The colored wires seem to buoy the lights. The red wires reflect them, so as you wander about the installation, threads of rosy red dash around within it, quick as lightning. All the blossoms of light appear to spring from this tangle of wires, suggesting a reassuring interconnectedness.