Helen Pashgian is a pioneer Light and Space Movement artist, a member of the small group of Southern California artists who coalesced in the 1960s around the use of industrial materials, which offered unique optical and color possibilities through which to explore the phenomenon of perception. Technically innovative, Pashgian continues her rigorous exploration of the spatial qualities of color in light.

The early cast resin work of 1968 and 1969 introduced Pashgian as a sculptor of light and one of the L.A. Light and Space artists. Artists such as Peter Alexander, Larry Bell, Robert Irwin, Craig Kauffman, James Turrell, DeWain Valentine, Doug Wheeler, and Helen Pashgian shared an interest in new materials, new industrial processes, and new modes of hypersensitive seeing. In the 1960s this segment of the Southern California art scene was first dubbed the L.A. Glass and Plastic School, and then the Light and Space Movement. Individually they explored the perceptual effects of light in space, testing the limits of luminosity and the possibilities of immateriality with industrial materials such as cast acrylic, resin, and glass.