Station Museum Examines Asian American Identity in Latest Exhibition

…and still we banter with the Devil, 2017, oil, silk, acrylic, antique 24k gold leaf obi thread, 19th century American cotton on canvas, 72″ x 96″

Lien Truong calls her recent works “a frenetic amalgamation of western and Asian painting techniques and philosophies.” The artist’s choice of materials—oils, silk, thread, cotton, acrylics, and antique 24k gold-leaf obi thread—create an absorbing cacophony of culture and honed skills. The series “Mutiny in the Garden,” in particular, take on varying and converging histories.

“The act of manipulating pigment over a support instantaneously embraces centuries of historical drawing and painting, art made integral with religious principles and cultural ideologies,” the artist says, in a statement. “I am at once undeniably seduced by the sensation and process of pushing material over a surface and at the same time curiously fixated on the present-day relevance and discoveries of these primordial acts. For me, the advancement of art and culture are parallel. Creating art becomes an illuminating act, one undertaken to understand contemporary doctrines by the study of evolving sentiments.”