Antonius-Tín Bui: Finding Heart (tìm tim)
Sep 21 – Dec 14, 2019
This fall, the Laband Art Gallery presents the West Coast debut of artist Antonius-Tín Bui. Working across media that includes cut paper, photography, drawing, video and performance, Bui's artistic practice invites us to consider how intersectional identities are reflected in today's culture.
Bui's larger-than-life, hand-cut paper portrait series is beautifully complex—the work blends the Asian craft tradition of papercutting with a contemporary aesthetic. These portraits also celebrate multilayered identities. Each one of Bui's subjects is a queer Asian American Pacific Islander who has played an important part in the artist's life. In another series called "Donrose paper fashion," Bui's images depict male bodies adorned in majestic-looking, cut-out paper garments that convey a sense of mystery, beauty and fragility.
The exhibition's title, Finding Heart, is a direct translation of "tìm tim," a heteronym in the Vietnamese language. The title proposes Bui's artistic practice as a compassionate undertaking. Indeed, for Bui, art-making is a way to find a sense of purpose, spirituality, and community. As a queer, gender-nonbinary, Vietnamese-American artist, Bui's work celebrates, honors, and challenges assumptions about intersectional identities.
About the Artist: Born in 1992 in Bronx, NY, and raised in Houston, TX, Antonius-Tín Bui received a BFA from the Maryland Institute College of Art in 2016. Their work has been exhibited at various institutional, private, public, and underground venues, including the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, Corcoran Gallery of Art, Hillyer Art Space, Lawndale Art Center, Living Arts, 108 Contemporary, Artscape, and Satellite Art Fair Austin.
Artist in Residence: Nov. 13 – 16, check the Laband's web site for performances and conversations scheduled during Bui's week in residence at LMU.
Finding Heart (tìm tim) is presented by the Laband Art Gallery, in collaboration with LGBT Student Services, Asian Pacific Student Services, the Academy of Catholic Thought and Imagination, and Iggy's Yarnsters.
Exhibition Photos
