40H x 56.5 inches
The print Patient Admission, US Naval Hospital Ship Mercy, Vietnam (2010) features an Asian Buddhist monk and an American Navy Solider on board the Mercy ship –one of the two dedicated hospital ships of the United States Navy– sitting upright in their chairs and adopting the same posture. In the background, the steel pillars creates a division of space implying a separation the two men according to their geographic regions of origin or residence, their vocations, their ethnicities, and their attitudes toward war. Yet, the mirrored body language of the two characters also suggests their reconciliation into a dialogue perhaps characterized by the protagonists’ physical and spiritual conversation. This photograph translates the artist’s ambivalence about military action. But this ambivalence becomes intrinsically complicated through LÊ’s rich use of color renders the kaleidoscopic shifts of terrain and sudden intrusion of beauty, atmosphere and psychology within her observations if the military at work. The heightened aesthetics qualities become unsettling, precisely because they counter the horrific violence that we expect from wartime imagery, as well as our collective historical memory of such extreme traumas as the Vietnam War. LÊ’s image, by extension, adds a disconcertingly glossy veneer to a moment of stasis, as if to suggest that war and military intervention are defined just as much by the quiet moments in between battle as they are by violence itself.
An-My LÊ arrived in the United Sates in 1975 as a war refugee from Vietnam. LÊ is a prolific photographer whose work blurs presumed boundaries between documentary and portrait photography. Her more recent work displays a rich use of color and an aesthetic beauty that belies the horrific imagery associated with violent combat. In such, her photographs also challenge the limits of reportage by suggesting that all representation is, on some level, fabricated for the camera and that the underlying narratives that we as viewers presume are never exactly what they seem.
This untitled print by Wade Guyton depicts an iteration of elements that are characteristic of the artist’s work...
A new wave: spate of UK exhibitions signal growing recognition for Inuit and Sámi art Art market Museums & heritage Exhibitions Books Podcasts Columns Technology Adventures with Van Gogh Search Search Exhibitions news A new wave: spate of UK exhibitions signal growing recognition for Inuit and Sámi art Shows in London, Southampton and St Ives are introducing a wider audience to the work of artists from the far north Alexander Morrison 7 February 2024 Share Pia Arke's Krabbe 1906/Jensen 1947 is an example of how the artist blended “the personal with the political” Courtesy and © Pia Arke Estate Two years on from the last major milestone, the push for representation of art from the far north appears to have reached another...
The Rockefeller Foundation Launches The Artist Impact Initiative with Creative Time and Pioneer Works - Creative Time The Rockefeller Foundation Launches The Artist Impact Initiative with Creative Time and Pioneer Works November 16th, 2023 Tweet Email Today, The Rockefeller Foundation launches The Artist Impact Initiative with Creative Time and Pioneer Works...
An orphaned artist paints for support (via The Phnom Penh Post) | ArtsEquator Thinking and Talking about Arts and Culture in Southeast Asia ArtsEquator Radar July 5, 2018 Self-taught artist Yi Kakada has spent the past six years demonstrating his skills by painting on walls, fences and other public areas, often without getting paid...
Untitled (San Francisco) was made in Idaho in 1984 and was facetiously dedicated to Henry Hopkins, the then director of the San Francisco Museum of Art who added “modern” to its name...
Though not strictly representational, some objects in Untitled (1962) are recognizable: a flower, an egg, a foot...
font VII by Catalina Ouyang is part of an ongoing series of ‘fonts’, or sculptures, inspired by Catholic holy water vessels...
Video: new posters on display | Blog | Royal Academy of Arts Poster Bar by José Video: new posters on display Read more Become a Friend Video: new posters on display Published 22 August 2023 Watch our team refresh our iconic Poster Bar for the first time since 2018, featuring 21 new posters from our past exhibitions...
The American Scholar: Hey Siri, Call Webster - Kelly McMasters Tuning Up - Winter 2024 Hey Siri, Call Webster Subscription required When it comes to learning new words, it’s not where you look them up that’s important By Kelly McMasters | December 4, 2023 Illustration by Matt Rota Not long ago, my son asked me about the meaning of a word in a novel he was reading for his fifth-grade book club...
The series Nightmare Wallpapers represents a shift if Chuen’s practice, allowing the artist to immerse himself in an “artistic pilgrimage of self healing” following the failure of the 2014 Umbrella Movement...