"Laotian Diaspora" Acrylic on Canvas, 16ft x 8ft, 2018
**Is Installed at the Nashville Airport from March-August 2018 Sisavanh Phouthavong is one of the first professional Lao American visual artists and educators of her generation. Over 5,400 Lao refugees resettled in Kansas in the aftermath of the Laotian Civil War that ended in 1975. Through her powerful acrylic work, she confronts the challenges of bicultural memory and documentation. She considers notions of the abstract and the concrete for those who must remember both their inner and external histories in a diaspora framed by secrecy and loss. Her work probes what is shared, what is felt, and what must remain deeply personal among the lessons passed on to the next generation as it heals and rebuilds. Courtesy of Bryan Thao Worra: Laotian Poet, writer As a refugee, the process of connecting and disconnecting with a place or community are abstracted ideas of migration as an immigrant. The collage and painting process is unpredictable and is an ongoing dialogue about assimilating and relocating into another culture and space. The work capture and embrace architecture and built environment in its state of flux. Teetering between realism and abstraction, I fold space and time to connect with the fleeting world. To achieve a kaleidoscopic effect, I employ multiple viewpoints, rhythmic fragmentations, and strong color contrast to fuse both the contemporary and historical landscape elements into one. |
Recent Events:
Sept. 20th-Dec. 30th 2018: I have just been invited to be part of the Hunter Invitational Exhibition at the Hunter Museum of Art, Chattanooga,TN. Very excited indeed and l can't wait to start working on new works for the show. Fall 2018: I will be part of an upcoming Fall 2018 creative projects for Southeast Asian diaspora/Lao Diaspora Storytelling Project by Little Laos on the Prairie: Founder Chanda Phaengdara Potter www.theseadproject.org and http://littlelaosontheprairie.org March 5, 2018-August 26, 2018: Reception April 5th, 4-6PM Flying Solo Exhibit, Arts in the Airport, Nashville BNA, I will be installing a 18 feet x 6 feet painting at the left ticket lobby South Area. January 30th-March 31st 2018: Reception and Artist Panel at 530PM on Thursday Feb. 22. Exhibition titled: The Power of Color at Lauren Rogers Museum of Art, Laurel, Mississippi, showing with two amazing artists Kevin Cole and Carl Joe Williams January 20, 2018: Donated two small framed collages to Winter Gala to benefit Legacies of War and Friends Without A Border, Olmsted Lodge at Highland Park, Rochester, NY 7-11PM You may bid on the pieces at this website: https://www.laounyawintergala.com January 5, 2018: Framed collages /paintings are on displayed for a year at the law firm of Nelson Mullins, Nashville, TN --------------------------------------------------------- Nov. 19, 2017: UXO: Laos will be published in the next issue of The Pinch Journal: a bi-annual literary journal produced entirely by the students of the University of Memphis MFA Program and English Department. Nov. 2, 2017: Gina Logue and I continued our conversation about Art+Life+Refugee+Immigrants= issues of the world on MT Conversations, a MTSU TV forum that focuses on bringing attention to research & projects. Oct. 20, 2017: I gave a lecture on Thai Art from 3-4:30PM at the Honors Amphitheater (106) to the Honor Students heading off to Thailand in January 2018. Oct. 13,14,15, 2017: Excited that Twenty-Five framed collages and three new 24"x36" Paintings will be on displayed for Art for Change at the Legacies of War Conference/Fundraiser/ show, NYC, NY Sept. 15, 2017: I had a great TV interview with Andrew Oppmann, MTSU's Vice President for Marketing and Communications and along side Connie Huddleston for MTSUNews.com The hummingbird painting "Discombobulated" will be featured on the front page the Liberal Arts Magazine. Sept. 1, 2017: 4 Defied Structures framed pieces and 6 Deliberate Moments Resin Collages will be installed in Pinnacle Bank's new Headquarters in Memphis, TN in October! 10 pieces in Permanent Collection..woop, woop! August 25, 2017: Invited to group exhibition MAMA Made, Elizabeth Holden Gallery, Warren Wilson College, Asheville, NC by Professor Lara Nguyen. Opening Reception: Thursday November 2, 2017, 4:30-6:30PM, Display Period: 10/30/17-12/5/17 August 14-2017: So excited to be Artist of the week! Five paintings were displayed on the Digital Nashville Sign Billboard on 1615 Broadway/ West End split, 36 feet x 38 feet) July 18, 2017: Thank you Gina Logue for your interest on the the new body of work "Legacies of War". The interview was aired on July 18th at 9:30 p.m. on WMOT-FM 89.5 (MTSU ON the Record) Short Version: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RH6hRmKf8Vg Longer version: http://mtsunews.com/phouthavong-legacies-july2017/ June 23-24, 2017: 4th LAWS (Lao American Writer Summit) was a hit. Jarrod and I ran a two day workshop: Exquisite Monsters (Corpse) and we had a blast. June 2, 2017: I am shocked that I have just been awarded a prestigious TN Arts Individual Artist Fellowship for 2D, $5000 May 18, 2017: Flying Solo Exhibit, Arts in the Airport, Nashville BNA, I will be installing a 18 feet x 6 feet painting at the left ticket lobby South Area, Show Dates: March 5, 2018-August 26, 2018 May 30, 2017: I am excited to be part of the very competitive Red Clay Survey, Huntsville Museum of Art, Juror: Gerry Bergstein, Huntsville, AL (1500 entries were submitted, 81 works will be shown by 53 Artists). Opening Reception and award ceremony will be on July 8th from 630-830PM: Show dates: July 8th-October 1st 2017 April 04, 2017: A massive shout out and Thank You to Wall Street International (WSI) for the review on the Legacies of War show at Tinney Contemporary. Daniel Gauss is a brilliant writer with over 200 reviews under his belt. http://wsimag.com/art/24789-the-legacy-of-the-secret-war-in-laos March 18, 2017: Spring 2017 Create Magazine is on the shelves! Juried by Bridgette Mayer https://www.facebook.com/create.art.magazine https://www.instagram.com/create_mag/ https://create-magazine.com/blog/2017/2/7/issue-iii-selected-artists March 16, 2017:I am humbled and honored to have been interviewed by Ai Kingsavanh Pathammavong, from VOA (Voices of America: Lao Channel) about my recent solo show at Tinney Contemporary, my affiliation with Legacies of War and my life as a "Rare Laotian American Painter". Sorry, but it is mostly in Laotian..ha. Here is the link. lao.voanews.com/a/voa-interview-ms-sisavanh-phouthavong-houghton-painter-and-art-professor-at-middle-tennessee-state-university/3766559.html?nocache=1 March 12, 2017: So honored to have been interviewed by Melinda Baker for the Tennessean. www.tennessean.com/story/life/arts/2017/03/12/tinney-contemporary-exhibition-delves-into-legacies-war/98867506/ Feb 25-March 25th 2017 / Reception/Talk March 4th 6-9PM: Legacies of War, Solo Show, Tinney Contemporary Gallery, Nashville TN. http://tinneycontemporary.com/exhibitions/details/legacies_of_war/ March 2017: Defied Structures, solo show, University World College Library, Phuket, Thailand Feb. 1st-March 1st 2017: Artist in Residence, two weeks at University of World College, Phuket, Thailand March 2017: Visiting Artist at Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok, Thailand ________________________________________________________ Dec. 2016: Three Hummingbird paintings will be on displayed for a year at the law firm of Nelson Mullins, Nashville, TN Oct. 2016: Three Collages Auctioned off for Legacie of War, NYC Sept. 2016: ART Exchange Exhibition: It Takes A Village: Rebirth and Transformation, Long Beach, CA Aug. 2016: Tools of the Trade, MTSU Faculty Show, Todd Gallery, Murfreesboro, TN May 2016: Intersectionalities: Defining the Lao American Narrative in Visual Arts, Centro Cultural De La Raza, Juror: Sayon Syprasoeuth, San Diego, CA May 2016: Artist Panel at Lao Writer's Summit, San Diego, CA March 2016: 18th International Collage Exhibition & Exchange, Traveling Exhibition: The Verbeke Foundation in Belgium, Percy Thomson Gallery, Stratford, New Zealand March 2016: Poetic Logic, Sweetwater Center for the Arts, Juror: Shawn Watrous, Won Purchased Award, Sewickley, PA Feb. 2016: Art in Embassies, Three bronze framed hummingbird pieces (collaborated with Jarrod Houghton) purchased for American Embassy, Paramaribo, Suriname |