Double Vision

After trampling in the muddy rice fields of rural Vietnam then wandering supermarket aisles in the United States, Millian Pham received her BFA in painting and printmaking from the University of Tulsa in Oklahoma and her MFA in sculpture from the University of Florida. Currently based in Alabama, teaching in the College of Arts at Auburn University, we are overjoyed to have Millian’s body of work, Double Vision here at the Reese Bullen Gallery. 

Artist and Educator Pham’s art practice uses personal and cultural signifiers of her native Vietnam and adopted America in the mediums of painting, printmaking, and installation. Pham states, “My art making is code switching. Each work experiments with the aesthetic codes and conceptual framework of multiple cultures, art mediums, and languages. I test out new ways to convey an idea through a pluralism of perspective by switching visual codes through juxtaposition and obfuscation.”

In a series of 8 new tapestries that are over 10 feet tall, creating a series of dividers in the Gallery space, Pham utilizes “ images and texts from my native Vietnamese with adopted American cultures using lustrous paint and other aesthetic references to lacquer art. I’m interested in highly abstracting these words to the point of near illegibility, hiding phrases, and presenting them as ambiguous visual puzzles. “ 

Millian Giang Pham will be in humboldt for a 2 day engagement with students and classes here at the Art + Film Department at Cal Poly Humboldt. With workshops for students, as well as a public Artist Talk Thursday September 26th at 5pm, at ArtB 101 across from the Reese Bullen Gallery during the Opening Reception. 

The exhibition Double Vision will run from September 19th through October 18th at the Reese Bullen Gallery. We will hold an Opening Reception and Artist Talk with Pham on Thursday September 26th from 4:30pm-6:30pm at the Reese Bullen Gallery, with light refreshments; and the Artist Talk starting at 5pm in the Lecture Hall, ArtB 101.