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Tam Van Tran

Adornment of Basic Space

February 18March 30, 2012

This image illustrates a link to the exhibition titled Tam Van Tran: Adornment of Basic Space

Images

Tam Van Tran, 2012, Installation View

Tam Van Tran: Adornment of Basic Space
Installation View

Tam Van Tran, 2012, Installation View

Tam Van Tran: Adornment of Basic Space
Installation View

Tam Van Tran, 2012, Installation View

Tam Van Tran: Adornment of Basic Space
Installation View

Tam Van Tran, The Radiance of Awareness II, 2012, Acrylic, staples on paper, linen and canvas, 86" x 104" x 23"

Tam Van Tran
The Radiance of Awareness II, 2012

Tâm Văn Trần: "The Radiance of Awareness I," 2012

Tâm Văn Trần
"The Radiance of Awareness I," 2012

Tam Van Tran, Stencil's Apprentice I, 2012, High fire glaze and glass on ceramic, 92" x 36 1/2" x 2 1/2"

Tam Van Tran
Stencil's Apprentice I, 2012

Tâm Văn Trần:"Simple Folk Song," 2012

Tâm Văn Trần
"Simple Folk Song," 2012

Tam Van Tran, Installation Image, 2012

Tam Van Tran: Adornment of Basic Space
Installation View

Tam Van Tran, Bodhisattva II, 2012, Low fire glazed ceramic, 16" x 17 1/2" x 6"

Tam Van Tran
Bodhisattva II, 2012

Tâm Văn Trần: "Bodhisattva V," 2012

Tâm Văn Trần:
"Bodhisattva V," 2012

Tam Van Tran, Bodhisattva XII, 2012, Low fire glazed ceramic, 16" x 17 1/2" x 6"

Tam Van Tran
Bodhisattva XII, 2012

Tam Van Tran, Ghosts III, 2012, High fire glaze and glass on ceramic

Tam Van Tran
Ghosts III, 2012

Tâm Văn Trần: "Ghosts IV," 2012

Tâm Văn Trần
"Ghosts IV," 2012

Tam Van Tran, Ghosts VI, 2012, High fire glaze and glass on ceramic

Tam Van Tran
Ghosts VI, 2012

Tâm Văn Trần: "Slogan Vase III," 2012

Tâm Văn Trần
"Slogan Vase III," 2012

Press Release

Susanne Vielmetter Los Angeles Projects is pleased to present a solo exhibition of new work by Tam Van Tran in the first two galleries.

The exhibition presents several large wall works on paper as well as a group of clay sculptures and clay wall posters. At the heart of this new body of work is Trans interest in exploring the language of painting. Whether using paper or clay, his works continue to fuse elements of flat wall works and sculptural floor works. In the first gallery Tam continues to develop his large undulating wall works, made from paper and canvas stapled together from narrow cut strips of previously cut up paintings. Featuring intricate and beautifully composed strings of pearly punchholes, his wall collages ruminate on the language of painting, but flirt with the free flowing forms of stoneware and earthenware sculptures.

Their textured surfaces find a reflection in the clay works on view in the second gallery. Ambitiously scaled ceramic posters displayed on the gallery walls and an army of shaped ceramic vases weave elements of fantasy, personal history and the landscape. The ceramic posters feature glaze and recycled bottle glass which melts during the firing process. The resulting crackled and richly textured surface relates it back to the layered and complex surfaces of the paintings in the first gallery.

Tam Van Trans work has been recently featured in solo exhibitions at Anthony Meiers Gallery, at the Blaffer Gallery at the Art Museum of the University of Houston, Texas, and at the Knoxville Museum of Art, Tennessee. His work was included, among other exhibitions, in the 2004 Whitney Biennial, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; in Paul Clay at Salon 94, New York, NY; in Los Angeles Museum of Ceramic Art at Acme, Los Angeles, and in exhibitions at the Armory Center for the Arts, Pasadena; the Pacific Design Center, Los Angeles; University of Central Florida, Orlando Fl; Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo NY; MFA Houston, Houston TX; the Institute of Contemporary Art Boston; the Weatherspoon Art Museum, NC; the San Francisco Art Institute, San Francisco, CA; in International Paper, UCLA Hammer Museum, Los Angeles; and in the Drawing Biennial at the Weatherspoon Art Gallery, Greensboro, NC.