Linda Nguyen Lopez: Low Tide
Combining inspiration from her family’s unique history and Isamu Noguchi’s wall mounted sculpture Lunar Landscape (1943), Lopez captures bits and pieces of stories and experiences passed down to her from her parents, both immigrants to the United States.
Join us for an opening reception with the artist in attendance on Saturday, October 24, from 6 to 8 pm.
David B. Smith Gallery is proud to welcome back Fayetteville, Arkansas-based artist Linda Nguyen Lopez for her third solo exhibition with the gallery, Low Tide. The presentation will also be accompanied by a forthcoming catalogue. Displayed throughout the Main Gallery, Low Tide is a sculptural landscape comprising ceramic pieces nestled onto carpet islands and studded with colorful mosaic stools, lamps, and wall sculptures.
Combining inspiration from her family’s unique history and Isamu Noguchi’s wall mounted sculpture Lunar Landscape (1943), Lopez captures bits and pieces of stories and experiences passed down to her from her parents, both immigrants to the United States. Patterns that reference textiles from Vietnam and Mexico, the home nations of her mother and father respectively, make up the stained mosaic tiles that quilt together the surface of works featured in the exhibition. The tile pieces themselves don’t fit perfectly; gaps left behind and filled in by grout metaphorically speak to the gaps in stories and lived experiences, much of which is lost in translation as immigrants forge new paths.
Named for the objects revealed on the beach when waves recede—the ebb and flood of which are governed by the gravitational pull of the moon—Low Tide exposes what lies beneath the surface. As Lopez has pieced together the narratives, lessons, and generational teachings of her parents, visual markers have emerged. Sometimes playful and seemingly random, 25-karat gold lustered objects including a cowboy boot and a chicken foot are displayed on softly undulating wall sculptures, capturing hyperspecific flecks of mixed cultural upbringing. These objects help the artist hold onto stories and important memories, many of which could be passed further down the generational line.
In Low Tide, Lopez explores the question of intergenerational transference, holding space to ruminate on what one retains from their lineage and the role of intentionality in cultural inheritance. Mirrored throughout the exhibition are infusions of the deeply personal blended with universal languages of color and design. Pivoting between materials and familial rifts, Lopez’s Low Tide alternates focus between the anecdotal yet precious nature of the stories we keep.
Read the artist statement for Low Tide here.
