The University of Arizona School of Art Visiting Artist and Scholar Series, 2009–2010
KAY LAWRENCE
Thursday, September 17, 2009, 5:30pm
Center for Creative Photography 108
TAM VAN TRAN
Thursday, September 24, 2009, 5:30pm
Center for Creative Photography 108
OKWUI ENWEZOR
Thursday, October 15, 2009, 5:30pm
Center for Creative Photography 108
LIN + LAM
Thursday, November 12, 2009, 5:30pm
Center for Creative Photography 108
JAIMEY HAMILTON
Thursday, December 3, 2009, 5:30pm
Center for Creative Photography 108
PANEL DISCUSSION
Thursday, January 21, 2010, 5:30pm
Center for Creative Photography 108
BRUCE YONEMOTO
Thursday, February 18, 2010, 5:30pm
Center for Creative Photography 108
LIZ COHEN
Thursday, March 25, 2010, 5:30pm
Center for Creative Photography 108
DIPTI DESAI
Thursday, April 8, 2010, 5:30pm
Center for Creative Photography 108
Thursday, September 24, 2009, 5:30pm | Center for Creative Photography 108
Lecture with the Artist
(detail) secret butterfly heaven; acrylic, staples on canvas, paper & aluminum frame, 100 × 95 in., 2008
Tam Van Tran's work crosses borders between change and stasis, organic and human made, painting and sculpture; it is in fact, hybrid. Van Tran couples organic substances such as chlorophyll, spirulina, and beet juice with acrylic paint, and metal staples. He lists as his influences artists as diverse as Francisco Goya, Odilon Redon, and Charles Burchfield. Using staples and hole punches, Tam Van Tran manipulates his paintings on paper, forcing them into asymmetrical shapes and odd bunches. By stapling paper together over and over, Van Tran changes the shape of his works, relying on both nature and accident. His emphasis on materials including crimped paper, staples, and hole punches is tempered by his interest in traditional Chinese landscape painting, yet the works can look digitally altered and futuristic. Simultaneously, the work can look organic, suggesting cellular structures.
Van Tran draws imagery from past experiences as waiter, chef, and lab technician. He has made paintings that have molded and he has used eggshells, all the while noting the way in which these unconventional materials shape shifted over time. He has also experimented with white out liquid and with chlorophyll and spirulina algae, two substances favored by health food stores for their healing properties.
Born 1966 in Kontum, Vietnam, Van Tram 's family left Vietnam in 1975 before the fall of South Vietnam. They relocated to Denver, CO where the artist grew up. He later attended Pratt Institute in New York City and currently lives and works in Los Angeles, CA.
Background image: This is Not Me, Lin + Lam, site-specific installation and public intervention, Aarhus, Denmark, 2005. Site Design by Studio A. © 2009 Arizona Board of Regents.