Work
Inaugural Exhibition in Los Angeles, September 2022
Lien Truong | The Maiden | 2022 | oil, silk, acrylic on canvas | 72 x 72 inches (185.76 cm x 185.76 cm)
Linda Sormin | Pusuk Buhit | 2022 | glazed ceramic, gold leaf, discarded plastic 3D misprints, epoxy resin, watercolor on paper
Lien Truong | The Maiden | 2022 | oil, silk, acrylic on canvas | 72 x 72 inches (185.76 cm x 185.76 cm)
“Often defined as sweet, soft creatures who turn themselves into laurel trees rather than suffer the loss of their innocence, the maiden is none of those things. She is the fierce one, the feral one. She is the siren and the selkie, able to cast off her skin and reveal her complex forms.
My maidens, mothers and crones are painted in oil flesh, then cloaked in hand-painted silk as a reference to the origins of material and cultural trade along the Silk Road. My textile reveals their painted flesh underneath: bodies that are young, old, firm, aged and strong; referring to the upheaval silk caused when its transparent skin first clad western bodies; and the hand-painted silk that centuries later would adorn the bodies and rooms of the elite in the “West”, reinforcing its mythos of empire. Shunning these historic textiles, my clothing conjures representations of complex personhood, derived from a worldview ripened between mythic shadows and vivid lived experiences.
In the 1980 film “Urban Cowboy” the ability to ride a mechanical bull represented a kind of American upward class mobility only attainable by white men. As children who were barely aware of the barriers assigned to gender and race, we projected ourselves onto these imaginary representations of personhood.
She disowns frail, flattened definitions.
The Maiden is rooted in self-determination, emerging from the context of my war refugee family, and as homage to parents who straddled between treasuring Vietnamese cultural and familial tradition, to recognizing the detriment of these, if not sometimes adapted or cast; keen on nurturing independent thinkers, armed with tools for our autonomy”. LT
Lien Truong | Lucid Bravado Before the Witching Hour | 2022 | acrylic, chiffon silk stretched over wood | 16.5 x 20.5 inches
Double sided silk painting: “The General Lee graced the living rooms of American homes for years, its confederate flag is seen as a symbol of fun, power and rebellion for many youth, separated from the real circumstances and meaning of the confederacy”.
“The New Year Dragon dance shows a kind of ritual, one in which mostly men have sought the power of animals: horse, animal and myth for different purposes. The dragon dance is to bring luck to the community and ward off evil spirits”.
Linda Sormin | Si Boru Deak Parujar | 2022 | glazed ceramic, gold leaf, found string, discarded plastic 3D misprints, epoxy resin, watercolor on paper | 23 x 28 x 21 inches
Linda Sormin | Si Boru Deak Parujar | 2022 | glazed ceramic, gold leaf, found string, discarded plastic 3D misprints, epoxy resin, watercolor on paper | 23 x 28 x 21 inches
Installation View
Linda Sormin | Mula ni Tano | 2022 | glazed ceramic, gold leaf, found string, discarded plastic 3D misprints, epoxy resin, watercolor on paper | 27 x 24 x 27 inches
Linda Sormin | Mula ni Tano | 2022 | glazed ceramic, gold leaf, found string, discarded plastic 3D misprints, epoxy resin, watercolor on paper | 27 x 24 x 27 inches
Luis A. Sahagun | Limpia #2 (Chayo) | 2022 | Citrine, amethyst, obsidian
crystals, resin, beads, gorilla glue, rope, joint compound, gold leaf, family portraits, charcoal, paper, found objects, and caulk | 56 x 42 inches (144.48 cm x 108.36 cm)
Linda Sormin | Mandraguna | 2022 | glazed ceramic, gold leaf, found string, discarded plastic 3D misprints, epoxy resin, watercolor on paper | 21 x 20 x 14 inches
Luis A. Sahagun | Barrida #2 (Abuelita con mi Mama) | 2022 | Citrine, amethyst, obsidian crystals, resin, beads, gorilla glue, rope, joint compound, gold leaf, family portraits, charcoal, paper, found objects, and caulk | 108 x 57 inches (278.64 cm x 147.06 cm)
Linda Sormin | Banua Ginjang |2022 | glazed ceramic, gold leaf, found string, discarded plastic 3D misprints, epoxy resin, watercolor on paper | 25 x 30 x 26 inches
Luis A. Sahagun | Barrida #2 (Abuelita con mi Mama) | 2022 | Citrine, amethyst, obsidian crystals, resin, beads, gorilla glue, rope, joint compound, gold leaf, family portraits, charcoal, paper, found objects, and caulk | 108 x 57 inches (278.64 cm x 147.06 cm)
Linda Sormin | Banua Ginjang | 2022 | glazed ceramic, gold leaf, found string, discarded plastic 3D misprints, epoxy resin, watercolor on paper | 25 x 30 x 26 inches
Linda Sormin | Banua Ginjang | 2022 | glazed ceramic, gold leaf, found string, discarded plastic 3D misprints, epoxy resin, watercolor on paper | 25 x 30 x 26 inches
Installation view
Lien Truong | The Crone | 2022 | oil, silk, acrylic on canvas | 72 x 72 inches (185.76 cm x 185.76 cm)
Collection of the Cantor Arts Center at Stanford University
From the novel, “Once and Future Witches” by Alex. E Harrow: “The Crone was an amalgamation of myths and fables, an expression of collective fear rather than an actual old woman. Old women are supposed to be doting and addle, absentminded grandmothers who spoil their sons and keep soup bubbling on the stovetop. But the crone is none of those things. “
The Crone is my paternal grandmother, one of two grandmothers I have no memory of, and she whom I never met, passing away from TB when my father was 10 when Vietnam was under the French Colonial Territories known as French Indochina. My father also contracting TB years later in a French prison camp but survived.
Painted from the only picture of her face I have of her, having occupied a permanent place in our homes’ Bàn Thờ since I can remember. What does it mean to be frozen in concept as a grandmother, but in reality never age, experience and gain the familial and cultural respectability as the elderly family matriarch? And so…this role fell onto her eldest daughter, my father’s sister, a powerhouse whom we lovingly referred to as Maman.
In this new series I reimagine the archetypes of the Maiden, the Mother and the Crone. Firmly rooted in strength and resilience, alongside the trauma, fragility and love endured through war, displacement and colonialism.
Linda Sormin | Si Boru Deak Parujar | 2022 | glazed ceramic, gold leaf, found string, discarded plastic 3D misprints, epoxy resin, watercolor on paper | 23 x 28 x 21 inches
Lien Truong | Mothera | 2022 | oil, silk, acrylic on canvas | 72 x 72 inches (185.76 cm x 185.76 cm)
Private Collection
“In tales of old, mothers are written as weepy creatures who give birth to their children and drift into death. But the Mother is none of these things. Often living under the molds of patriarchy, colonialism and war, the Mother has experienced pain; welded power in her space; and impact on her children. Her trauma, maybe invisible to others, is inherited. Absorbed and fed to her offspring like invisible spices she can’t keep from falling into the food she prepares with fierce love.
There is nothing more glaring than the shortcomings of how we narrowly define the Mother, in the eyes of her children who have witnessed her. In this work, I paint the likeness of my own mother from the sparse photos I have of her wedding day, after she had experienced French colonialism of her childhood, and before the American military campaign in Vietnam.
Emerging from a pool of red liquid, she is surrounded by the Durian tree. The heavy, spiked fruit is common in Southeast Asia; accompanied by a pungent odor described as rotting flesh by those foreign to its intense perfume, and a heavy, spiked physique accounting to several deaths a year by falling fruit. For the refugee and immigrant children growing up outside of their ancestral land, the ability to eat Durian represents a kind of litmus test.
She is Mothera, taking on imaginary form from Mothra, the giant Moth creature from vintage TV episodes of Godzilla. The series’ etched into my childlike mind, standing apart in the anemic offerings of Asian people I had on the tube growing up in the US. The moth is flux—Mothera represents the deep transformation these mothers must undergo to adapt and exist in unfamiliar, foreign lands”. LT
Linda Sormin | Naga Padoha |2022 | glazed ceramic | 24 x 23.5 x 20 inches
Linda Sormin | Naga Padoha |2022 | glazed ceramic | 24 x 23.5 x 20 inches
Luis A. Sahagun | Limpia #1 (Maria) | 2022 | Citrine, amethyst, obsidian
crystals, resin, beads, gorilla glue, rope, joint compound, gold leaf, family portraits, charcoal, paper, found objects, and caulk | 56 x 42 inches (144.48 cm x 108.36 cm)
Luis A. Sahagun | Limpia #2 (Chayo) | 2022 | Citrine, amethyst, obsidian
crystals, resin, beads, gorilla glue, rope, joint compound, gold leaf, family portraits, charcoal, paper, found objects, and caulk | 56 x 42 inches (144.48 cm x 108.36 cm)
Luis A. Sahagun | Limpia #1 (Maria) | 2022 | Citrine, amethyst, obsidian
crystals, resin, beads, gorilla glue, rope, joint compound, gold leaf, family portraits, charcoal, paper, found objects, and caulk | 56 x 42 inches (144.48 cm x 108.36 cm)
Lien Truong | Cạo Gió Màu Vàng | 2022 | oil, silk, acrylic on canvas | 72 x 84 inches (185.76 cm x 216.72 cm)
Inaugural Exhibition in Los Angeles, September 2022
Lien Truong | Cạo Gió Màu Vàng | 2022 | oil, silk, acrylic on canvas | 72 x 84 inches (185.76 cm x 216.72 cm)
Cạo Gió Màu Vàng – To Scrape the Wind in Gold
The red circle is a stretched thomas moran landscape, which represents the colonized land. The three figures represent three generations from their mounts: a horse, a bicycle, a motorcycle. They have a stone in hand and are trying to perform Cạo gió scraping of the back to heal ailments, by bringing blood to the skin. The stones are painted in gold pigment, as well as the outline of the cloud.
Linda Sormin | In Advance | 2018-22 | glazed ceramic, gold leaf, found string, discarded plastic 3D misprints, epoxy resin, watercolor on paper | 25 x 39 x 32 inches
Press Release
Inaugural Exhibition: Los Angeles
Linda Sormin
Lien Truong
Luis A. Sahagun
Exhibition Dates: September 3rd – October 15th, 2022 – EXTENDED TO OCTOBER 22ND!
Please join us to celebrate our Inaugural Exhibition in LOS ANGELES!
Preview Reception:
✓ Saturday, September 3rd, 2022 *Artists will not be present*
Opening: 2:00 pm – 8:00 pm
Reception for the artists:
✓ Saturday, September 10th, 2022
From 2:00 – 8:00 pm
☞ At 3:00 pm: “Something More…” with Lien Truong, Linda Sormin, Luis A. Sahagan – an artist led conversation.
Listen to the Artist talk This is the raw video file of the Linda Sormin / Lien Truong artist conversation at the Patricia Sweetow Gallery during the Inaugural Exhibition on September 10, 2022. The good news is you can view 2 brilliant artists unfiltered. The down side is the video is pretty rough, although I’ve cleaned up the audio to the extent possible. In the coming weeks there will be a second edited version of the talk, which will be posted when complete – stay tuned…
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PATRICIA SWEETOW GALLERY is excited to announce our Inaugural Exhibition in Los Angeles at 1700 South Santa Fe Avenue, 3rd Floor, with artists Lien Truong, North Carolina; Linda Sormin, New York and Luis A. Sahagun, California. The three artists in this exhibition offer practices immersed in complex visual and political American histories. They share personal, spiritual and cultural stories of migration during war, economic collapse and sovereign colonization. Their journeys come alive through a mélange of performative sculpture and painting, amplified by their respective interrogations of ancestral, racial, gender and ritual erasure. The rich, profound impact of their ideas finds life in unexpected iterations of nontraditional and historical materials. The three artists offer compelling and imaginative cultural forms that examine deeply personal histories that have endured within and alongside dominant culture under extraordinary circumstances.
Linda Sormin’s sculpture takes the viewer on a cinematic stride through storytelling, a “non-linear assemblage of fact and fiction.” Trained in traditional methods of clay forming, she strives to decolonize ceramics by subverting conventional correctness. She describes her process as “unbuilding,” as she “rolls and pinches clay into forms that melt, lean, lurch and dare you to approach.”
Shards, souvenirs, test tiles, metal, paper, video and trash are integral elements forming Sormin’s narratives disgorging place, time and culture. However, in this series there’s an additional intersection, she features pictographs referencing the Batak datu rituals and recipes recorded in Pustaha divination books. Offering tribute to the secret alchemy found in these books she delivers her own brew of science, spirit and the occult with her multi-media sculpture. The datu is a revered shaman and teacher with uncommon insights. Segueing the spirit of her ancestors from past to present, Sormin extends that tradition.
The nine sculptures were completed during her Summer 2022 residency at California State University Long Beach Center for Contemporary Ceramics.
Linda Sormin is Associate Professor of Studio Art at New York University, Steinhardt. Prior to NYU, Sormin was Associate Professor of Ceramic Art at the New York State College of Ceramics at Alfred University (2016 – 2019), Professor at Sheridan College in Toronto, 2012-16 and Associate Professor (2006- 2011) at the Rhode Island School of Design. Her work has been extensively exhibited throughout Europe, the United States and Asia. Public Collections include the Victoria and Albert Museum, London; Renwick Gallery of the Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, DC; Alfred Ceramic Art Museum at Alfred University, Alfred, NY; Arizona State University Art Museum, Tempe, AZ; CLAY Museum of Ceramic Art, Middelfart, Denmark; and Gardiner Museum, Toronto.
Creating a powerful fictive of female authority, Lien Truong presents Asian female protagonists who are forceful, autonomous counterpoints to Western misogyny. Four new paintings – a segue from Truong’s “From the Earth Rise Radiant Beings,” exhibited at Van Every/Smith Galleries, Davidson College in 2021 – will be on view in our Inaugural Exhibition. Continuing her focus on the generational trauma and resilience of Asian women lived and portrayed throughout history, the new paintings address the mythical stature of archetypes – more specifically, The Maiden, The Mother, and The Crone. Truong employs herself and her family matriarchs from Vietnam as symbols, through figure, landscape and objects, in the new works – “details that consider the magical, resilient nature of the Asian female body, that has had to endure war and trauma.” In her manifestations, resilience is inherited, adapted, and resistant to prevailing cultural alienation.
In addition to the large canvas works are six double-sided paintings that present as cultural opposition to American dogma: “The smaller works take two images that critically look at the culturally complex inventions within American soil, alongside ingrained white supremacist ideologies, memory, with a focus on ritual, magic, masquerade, and fire.”
Truong’s oeuvre can be viewed as Asian Futurism, born from the violent histories descended from Orientalist ideologies. Her work tests the hybridity and historic hierarchies of global painting techniques, materials and philosophies as she fragments paintings, art, film, and family. She subverts color and values, staging a background layered with singed panels of painted floating silk and blended gestures of oil paint, amidst interpretations of historic textile patterns, and emblematic and hegemonic iconography.
Lien Truong is an Associate Professor of Art in the Department of Art & Art History at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She is the recipient of a Joan Mitchell Foundation Painters & Sculptors Grant, and fellowships from the Institute for the Arts & Humanities, the North Carolina Arts Council, and the Jack and Gertrude Murphy Fine Arts Fellowships. Her work is included in national and international collections.
Luis A. Sahagun’s visual and performative art practice reclaims his undocumented childhood, embodies the aesthetics of cultural resistance, and celebrates Latinx labor to immortalize the stories of his community. He draws from indigenous Curanderismo (healing) philosophies and his personal experience of Mestizo (mixed race) to provoke conversations around Latinx identity, craft, spirituality, and labor. His mixed media sculptures and drawings visually reflect this unique hybridization, by deliberately diminishing opposing dualities of indigenous versus conqueror, violence versus unity, ancient versus contemporary, artist versus artisan.
Working in a wide range of materials influenced by his ancestral background as well as years spent working in construction, Sahagun applies the same mixing of oppositional substances like silicone, lumber, concrete, and hardware with beads, pearls, sequins, thread, and maize, then adding delicate graphite portraits of loved ones. Indigenous healing philosophies imbue these works with transformative power as Sahagun mines old traditions only to find new paths forward.
Emerging artist Luis A. Sahagun’s public exhibitions include the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, IL; Chicago Cultural Center, Chicago, IL; Anderson Museum of Contemporary Art, Roswell, NM; the National Museum of Mexican Art, Chicago, IL; and DePaul Art Museum, Chicago, IL. Sahagun’s residencies include Roswell, NM; Oaxaca, Mexico; and the Chicago Artist Coalition. He was also Artist in Residence for Critical Race Studies at Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI. Sahagun received his BFA in 2006 from Southern Illinois University, Carbondale, IL, and MFA in 2015 from Northern Illinois University, School of Art and Design, DeKalb, IL.