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 Tam Van Tran

Tam Van Tran
Detail of Blue Cologne, 2014

 Tam Van Tran

Tam Van Tran
Blue Cologne, 2014
Acrylic on canvas
48 x 36 inches
121.9 x 91.4 cm
 

 Tam Van Tran

Tam Van Tran
Flower Offerings, 2014
Acrylic on canvas
80 1/2 x 80 inches
204.5 x 203.2 cm

 Tam Van Tran

Tam Van Tran
Untitled, 2014
Acrylic on canvas
14 x 11 inches
35.6 x 27.9 cm

 Tam Van Tran

Tam Van Tran
Hurricane Flowers, 2014
Acrylic on canvas
80 1/2 x 80 inches
204.5 x 203.2 cm

 Tam Van Tran

Tam Van Tran
Modest Costume, 2014
Acrylic, silver leaf and zipper on paper
66 x 41 1/2 inches
167.6 x 105.4 cm

 Tam Van Tran,
Tam Van Tran

Detail of Modest Costume, 2014

 Tam Van Tran

Tam Van Tran
Black and Blue Cologne, 2014
Acrylic, silver leaf, zipper and ceramic on
paper
66 x 41 1/2 inches
167.6 x 105.4 cm

 Tam Van Tran

Tam Van Tran
Detail of Black and Blue Cologne, 2014

 

 Tam Van Tran

Tam Van Tran
Burlap Perfume, 2014
Acrylic, silver leaf, burlap and ceramic on
paper
66 x 41 1/2 inches
167.6 x 105.4 cm

 Tam Van Tran

Tam Van Tran
Detail of Burlap Perfume, 2014

 Tam Van Tran

Tam Van Tran
Sea of Crushed Silver, 2014
Acrylic, silver leaf and zipper on paper
66 x 41 1/2 inches
167.6 x 105.4 cm

 Tam Van Tran

Tam Van Tran
Detail of Sea of Crushed Silver, 2014

 Tam Van Tran

Tam Van Tran
Mushrooms and Cologne, 2014
Acrylic, collaged canvas and ceramic on
canvas
67 x 41 1/2 inches
170.2 x 105.4 cm

PRESS RELEASE

 

Tam Van Tran: Survival Skills

31 October – 5 December 2014

Opening reception: Thursday, 30 October, 6 to 8 pm*

 

Anthony Meier Fine Arts is pleased to present a solo exhibition of new work by Los Angeles-based artist Tam Van Tran. Exhibiting at the gallery for the fourth time, Tran’s latest works mark a departure from the obsessive process of earlier series.  Embracing the collision of opposites - addition and subtraction, miniaturization and expansiveness, natural and manmade, tranquility and chaos - Tran continues past conversations with inspired force.

Throughout his career, each body of Tran’s work has abstractly reflected on moments in his own history. In this new series, Tran shares elements of his experience of dislocation and struggle connected to his crossing by boat from Vietnam to the United States at the age of nine years.

Utilizing broad brushstrokes in basic, natural tones evoking sky and earth, Tran’s new works are frenzied, vibrant and electric.  Wide, muddy streaks on paper and canvas reference heavy, mammalian movement.  In place of the smooth, curved slicing seen in Tran’s earlier work, paper is now randomly ripped and walked on, hastily folded or crushed.  Handmade delicate glazed ceramic bottles, inspired by antiquity, perch in the drawings crags.  Surfaces are collaged in luminous silver leaf, zippers and burlap.

The reconfiguration and reinterpretation of materials in Tran’s work reminds viewers that the present is only one possible version of events, that reality is strongly influenced by ones own perceptions and prejudices.  Tran’s bold gestures connect to conflicts on a global level, they speak to the fundamental effects of struggle and violence and the optimistic beauty that can exist on the other side.

*complimentary valet parking

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