“Terranes”at The Border Gallery

Participating artists: Anh Thuy Nguyen, Adam Liam Rose, and Frank Wang Yefeng

Curated by Jamie Martinez

Sept 20 – Oct 20, 2019

TERRANES—Comparable to the shifting of tectonic plates resulting in the fruition of new variations and geological formations, Anh Thuy Nguyen, Adam Liam Rose and Frank Wang Yefeng’s pieces individually create alternative and well-cultivated perspectives pertaining to political relationships, social dynamics and cultural conflicts by pushing past and against the normalcy that has been cemented and engrained in human consciousness by society. Together, their works interact to produce an immersive infusion: a blend of disparate mediums—sculptures, drawings, and video—that interconnect and inform one another with the underlying commonality of shedding light onto significant and polarizing issues.

Anh Thuy Nguyen’s sculptures focus on the relationship between objects and objects, which act as bodies within a space, in order to “render the aporia of belonging/dis-belonging and togetherness/separation.” In both An Act of Simultaneous Looking and Dependable Distance, the flesh-hued silicone covered objects (pipes and stone respectively) refer to human [fragility] against the harsh steel structures bolstering the forms. While the visceral tension between materials creates striking compositions, the pieces themselves are also meant to be viewed in a performative manner. Nguyen’s works require one to imaginatively strap themselves onto or into the forms, prompting a restricting and burdening experience, therefore physically realizing an allegory of spatial relation by means of objects and one’s own body.

With encapsulating structures acting as a forefront to Adam Liam Rose’s installations, Stages of Fallout (2019) reveals another interpretation of his works as a series of drawings based on The Family Fallout Shelter (a guide made by the US Office of Civil and Defense Mobilization in 1959). Accessing influence from the political relationship between Israel, Palestine and the United States, his artworks are physical manifestations of his erudite study of “aesthetic systems of power embedded within architecture”. Rose’s drawings are intimate and delicate, evoking a sense of a slight voyeuristic gaze into an ambiguous, architectural depiction of rough graphite textures and chiaroscuro contrasts.

[’penthaus], a synchronized video installation on loop, provokes an elaborate stew of emotions: perplexity in conjunction with curiosity, filtered through tension and discomfort. Frank Wang Yefeng’s skilled use of 3D animation in conglomeration with his eery content provides surrealistic and cryptic realms of fantasy and realism. Inspired by a story in the old Chinese book A New Account of Tales of the World, Yefeng’s production of symbols (pig, pants, and house) alludes to his personal experience of moving to the States from China. “The virtual spaces are both macroscopic and microscopic, the time is both moving and still[…]”—the video, similarly to his other works, provides a hallucinatory and ephemeral voyage as the viewers fall into a delusional stupor. 

Adam Liam Rose (b. 1990) is an interdisciplinary artist working across sculpture, photography, video, and installation.  Born in Jerusalem and raised mostly in the United States, his works investigate the aesthetic systems of power embedded within architecture.  Rose draws inspiration from political realities in Israel / Palestine and the United States, often looking to structures of separation and control whose intentions either manifest outright or slither beneath the surface.  Rose has exhibited at museums and institutions including the Jewish Museum (New York, NY), the Chicago Artists Coalition (Chicago, IL), Marinaro Gallery (New York, NY), Mana Contemporary (Chicago, IL), Sullivan Galleries (Chicago, IL), Ortega Y Gasset Projects (Brooklyn, NY), and the Pfizer Building (New York, NY), to name a few.  He was a fellow at the Bronx Museum of the Arts’ AIM Program, the Art & Law Program in New York, and is a recipient of an Artis Contemporary Residency Grant. Rose was awarded artist residencies at Triangle Arts Association (Brooklyn, NY), Bemis Center for Contemporary Art (Omaha, NE), Ox-Bow School of Art (Saugatuck, MI), A-Z West: Institute of Investigative Living (Joshua Tree, CA), the Vermont Studio Center (Johnson, VT) and the Chicago Artists Coalition’s HATCH Residency (Chicago, IL).  He received a BFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (’12) and an MFA from Columbia University School of the Arts (‘17). Rose joined as co-director at artist-run gallery Ortega y Gasset Projects in 2019. He lives and works in Brooklyn, NY.

Anh Thuy Nguyen ( b.1993) is a visual artist from Hanoi, Viet Nam. She earned an M.F.A in Interdisciplinary Fine Art from School of Visual Arts (2018)  and a B.A in Studio Art and English (Writing) from DePauw University (2015). Her work consists of installation, sculpture, and performance that allegorize the interpersonal effect between bodies amidst the landscape of displacement, absence and nostalgia.

Anh Thuy has exhibited at Miyako Yoshinaga Gallery,  Sotheby’s Institute of Art, BOSI Contemporary, Radiator Gallery, Chinatown Soup Gallery, The Java Project, Pfizer Factory, Trestle Gallery, Nha San Collective (Hanoi, Viet Nam) among others…Residencies include The Studios at MASS MoCA, Vermont Studio Center, Brooklyn Art Space. Plus a solo exhibition at Assembly Room (New York). 

Anh Thuy Nguyen is based in Brooklyn, NY where she is currently a member of Brooklyn Art Space, Adjunct Professor at Hudson County Community College (NJ) and a recent Visiting Artist at Pratt Institute. 

Frank Wang Yefeng is an interdisciplinary artist. He was born in 1984, in Shanghai, China. He left China for the United States after completing his BFA at Shanghai University and received his MFA in Art and Technology Studies at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 2011. In 2013 he began teaching and building the Digital Media Art program at Rhode Island College as an Associate Professor. Yefeng is currently based in Providence, RI and New York, and constantly travels back and forth between the United States and his hometown, Shanghai.

Yefeng actively pursues his artistic career in both East and West and continues to think and work critically across media including Experimental 3D rendering and animation, video installation, virtual reality, and 3D printing. Yefeng has extensive experience exhibiting in venues internationally, which include Co-prosperity Sphere Culture Center(Chicago, IL), El Museo Cultural de Santa Fe(NM), Herald Square(NY, NY), Xuzhou Museum of Art(Xuzhou, China), HEREarts Center(NY, NY), The Museum of Luxun Academy of Art(Shenyang, China), Gene Siskel Film Center(Chicago, IL), Hyde Park Art Center(Hyde Park, IL), Hong Kong Art projects Gallery(Hong Kong), Between Art Lab(Shanghai, China), Governors Island Art Fair (NY,NY), Chi K11 Art Museum (Shanghai, China), etc. He was also a residency artist and juried panel member in NARS Foundation in Brooklyn, NY.