Between
Xuân Pham
February 4 - February 14, 2025
Strata Gallery announces Between, a solo exhibition by Emerging Artist Xuân Pham. The exhibition opens February 4th and runs through February 14th.
Xuân Pham explores themes of hybridity, vulnerability, and empathy through object making and storytelling. Her work centers the relationship between trauma, migration, and race, investigating how the political and psychological impact of trauma and grief transpires within the Asian American communities and how it informs the formation of subjectivity, especially in representations of race in the United States. Working between drawing, sculpture, and installation, she pursues these questions through materials that bear on the cultural and political histories of European imperialism.
Pham’s garments and drawings in the exhibition explore the interplay between private and public, visible and invisible, borders and screens, and various forms of spiritual, physical, and psychological protection. At first glance, Pham’s “suits” appear to be clothing. However, the sheer, transparent influence fabric neither hides nor protects the body. Rather, the unguarded suits function as talismans, drawing influence from historical ritualistic practices. These sheer suits are instilled with positive intentions which transcend physical projection and create a veil of spiritual security that acts as a second skin. This body of work explores the intersections between the ideas of faith, hope, and superstition. Displayed with these garments are life-size drawings, which serve as recording of the suits performances and functions according to the artist. Pham invites you to press upon these tactile “ghost” drawings to reveal layered imagery.
Xuân Pham received her MFA from the University of Massachusetts Amherst. She is currently a Visiting Assistant Professor in the Art Studio Department at Mount Holyoke College. She has a solo show between February 13-March 16 at Hampshire Gallery, MA and a forthcoming 3 person show in March 2025 at CT State Community College in Manchester, CT. Her work has been exhibited in New York City, Nebraska, Iowa, Massachusetts, and Florida. This is her first solo show in New Mexico.
Strata Gallery is open from 11 am to 5 pm Tuesday – Saturday. For more information about Strata Gallery, the current exhibit, and the future schedule of events, please visit the Strata Gallery website and Instagram.
Xuân Pham, Gạch Bông Tulip, Between Diaspora series, plaster, acrylic paint, 16.5”x25”x0.25”, 2023
Xuân Pham, Protection Vest (long version), Talisman series, organza fabric, 35”x25”x.5”, 2019
Xuân Pham, Block Breeze, Paper, graphite, 14”x14”x2”, 2023
Emerging Artist Program:
This project is supported in part by New Mexico Arts, a division of the Department of Cultural Affairs, and by the National Endowment for the Arts.