“Deodorized Central Mass with Satellites” (1991/1999), by Mike Kelley was a strong contender for most twittered art piece of 2013.

In a year filled with major art fairs, high-profile installations, and even rogue residencies, a few truly exceptional pieces still managed to stand out. Whether they were popping up on your Instagram (everyday), or taking a permanent place on your RSS feed–these pieces were inescapable in 2013.

Below, in no particular order, we’ve compiled some of our favorite viral pieces: 

The Rain Room rAndom International’ Rain Room

In Orbit by Tomas Saraceno

A walk through Saraceno’s exhibit at the Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen in Germany encouraged visitors to suspend belief (and themselves) as they floated above the gallery in these carefully placed nets.

MIT’s Silk Pavilion  

Recruiting over 6,500 silkworms to produce this “living” sculpture (seen above), MIT’s Mediated Matter Group created the Silk Pavilion as part of their ongoing research with biologically influenced fabrication. “Inspired by the silkworm’s ability to generate a 3D cocoon out of a single multi-property silk thread (1km in length), the overall geometry of the pavilion was created using an algorithm that assigns a single continuous thread across patches providing various degrees of density,” the group explained. 

You can also watch the full video if you’re still curious:

Bruce Munro at Cheekwood Gardens Lighting up the fields of Nashville, Tennessee’s Cheekwood Gardens artist Bruce Munro’s nature-inspired light installations literally illuminated the imagination. Check out our short doc above to experience all the glowing goodness.

Blue Moon

The 3D Printed Room Reminding us somewhat of the caves homes of Petra,

Dalston House

Called the only building where “every visitor becomes Spider-Man by The Guardian, Leandro Erlich’s Dalston House was one of the most popular installations of the year. A temporary structure, Dalston House was comprised of a reconstructed house exterior, placed at the perfect 45-degree angle with mirrors to give the impression that visitors were dangling off the ledges. Good picture for your Facebook profile or THE BEST PICTURE? wondered UK residents.

Picture via Time Out London

3D UV Thread

via Fubiz

In Berlin, Korean artist Jeongmoon Choi created 3D UV Thread, producing tricked out standard rooms with colorful UV lamps. Giving off the appearance of a portal to a different dimension, this was definitely a void we wouldn’t have minded entering.

JR in Times Square via the Times Square Alliance Inside Out New Your City JR Serpentine Pavilion  Serpentine Gallery Pavilion United Visual Artists Sou Fujimoto

Yayoi Kusama at David Zwirner

The mother of all viral installations, Yayoi Kusama‘s Infinity Room (part of her I Who Have Arrived In Heaven exhibit at David Zwirner) was so popular it even caused Time Out NY to exclaim that the city had gone “nuts with selfies.” Ethereal, trippy, and highly photogenic, if there was a prize for “art photo most seen on the internet this year”, this picture would win the gold medal.

Everything James Turrell did

2013 was a good year for artist James Turrell, a pivotal member of the Southern California Light and Space movement of the 1960s and 70s. Between a retrospective at LACMA, an exhibit at the Guggenheim, and an installation in Houston, Turrell’s glowing pieces seemed to literally take the nation by (neon) storm.

Did we miss your favorite installation of the year? Let us know in the comments below.

For more of our 2013 favorites, check out: