San Fran Arts: Maybaum Gallery Presents Kieu Tran and Laina Terpstra

Details: Category: Art, Museums, Galleries; Published on Monday, 27 February 2023 11:54; Written by A&E Contributing Editor

Maybaum Gallery is excited to present SACRED SPACES, a two-person exhibition with gallery artists Laina Terpstra and Kieu Tran. The show centers a selection of new works from the artists who will be exhibiting together for the first time.

Working in two different mediums but sharing a distinct visual language where abstraction and representation merge together, painter Laina Terpstra and sculptor Kieu Tran's two-person exhibition SACRED SPACES considers the formal deployment of movement, motion, and space in their respective art practices.

Movement and connection are at the heart of the new sculptures from Kieu Tran. Rendered in bronze and ceramic in contrasting black and white tones, these three-dimensional amorphous shapes successfully reference both the human figure and its spirit.

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While the abstracted figures are standalone sculptures, when viewed in their respective pairs, a shared visual language emerges. Made in relationship to each other, Tran's forms speak to the sacred space created between people in relationship to each other, whether in friendship or in love.

Referencing the joy of dance and the elemental acts of the body, the works counter the recent social isolation of the pandemic and point to the hope, possibility, and generative energy in the essential act of being together. What results is a language of community and togetherness shared in the landscape of these forms, a celebration of sacred space in the brevity of a moment or a lifetime.

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Kieu Tran is a first-generation Vietnamese American artist based in Oakland, California. Tran obtained a bachelor's degree in art history from UCLA and studied art while living in Italy and Germany. In 2014, Kieu followed an intriguing pull to Silicon Valley where she learned to code in 2014 and soon after became a full-time software engineer.

In January of 2021, Kieu left tech to pursue her passion of becoming a full-time artist. Her work has been featured in Interior Design Magazine, Surface Magazine, Sight Unseen, EST Living and Design Anthology Asia.

The second exhibit featured at the Maybaum Gallery is Crush created by Laina Terpstra

The Three Graces | Acrylic on canvas | 36 x 48 inches

In her new paintings, Terpstra continues an ongoing investigation of the tension between loose, gestural brush strokes enclosed against the depth and illusion of architectural or dimensional spaces. Masterfully balancing the implementation of perspective against haunting ethereal formations that appear to emerge from the architecture itself, Terpstra's compositions are compelling visual riddles that pull the viewer in and give the eye and mind multiple points of entry for prolonged contemplation.

Ascending Resonances (from Pieter de Hooch’s "Cardplayers in a Sunlit Room") | Acrylic on canvas | 78 x 62 inches

Terpstra takes inspiration from the old masters, often working in response to specific source material. The reference to Dutch master Pieter de Hooch is particularly conspicuous in these works, marked by Terpstra's reinvention of the dark enclosed interior with a single light source and patterned floors. Though she references the past, Terpstra's work has a contemporary beat–her abstracted shapes pulse with a dynamic movement. They flow, bend, shift and sway to meet the moment.

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Tower Sounds | Acrylic on canvas | 60 x 72 inches

The tactility of the paint and her acute awareness of touch evoke a kinesthetic empathy on the part of the viewer that draws one into the internal motion of both the evoked space, and the physical, tactile present. While veering towards abstraction, her compositions always retain an internal scaffolding of realistic space and light. Forms are deconstructed and distilled to their purest elements so that what is left is merely the code of an image that your mind is compelled to complete. Her work explores this liminal place where spaces are sensed rather than recognized, and defined through a logic of sensation, movement, and vibration.

Laina Terpstra is an abstract, figurative oil painter based in San Francisco. She is a graduate of Sarah Lawrence College, where her focus was Painting, Modern Dance, Philosophy and Theology. Laina's background in modern dance informs her work, in her sensitivity to movement and gesture. Terpstra has been exhibiting for over a decade both locally and nationally. She was a finalist in the Art Olympia 2015 International Art Competition where her work was exhibited at the final exhibition in Tokyo, June 13th 2015. Her work has appeared in multiple press outlets including Juxtapoz and Visual Art Source.

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Both artists are on display until March 30th, 2023. Maybaum Gallery is open Tuesday - Saturday 10:30 AM - 5:30 PM. We kindly ask visitors to schedule an appointment for private viewings of the exhibition or a selection of artworks.

Maybaum Gallery | 49 Geary Street, Suite 416
San Francisco, CA 94108
415-658-7669 | This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.