The University Art Gallery at Sonoma State University is pleased to present the exhibition, Tomas Vu: New Work/New York, which is on view now through Friday, March 2.
The exhibition presents 76 of Vu's visually and conceptually complex collaged mixed media works on paper along with a new series of ten silk-screen portraits of significant figures in 20th history and culture that are related to the collages.
The collages are unusual in that they feature laser cut wood and screen printed images, all hand finished with ink and paint.
Vu's experience of the Vietnam war as a child and living in New York at the time of the Sept. 11 attacks have influenced his work and his exploration of disaster and collapse, just two of themes present in the works on view in the University Art Gallery.
A native of Saigon, Vietnam, Tomas Vu moved to the United States at the age of 10. He credits the time he spent shaping surfboards for American GI's in Da Nang with having an impact on his work years later as both a painter and printmaker.
Vu went on to receive a B.F.A. from the University of Texas at El Paso and an M.F.A. from Yale University. He is currently a professor of art and director of printmaking at the LeRoy Neiman Center for Print Studies at Columbia University in New York.
Tomas Vu's work has been exhibited in "Orpheus Selection: In Search of Darkness" at P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center in New York; "Boston High Tea: Master Print Series" at the Sunshine Museum in Songzhuang, China; and "Organische Abstraction" at the Hack Museum in Ludwigshafen, Germany. He has also participated in exhibitions in Milan, Rome, and Yokuska, Japan. Vu received a Guggenheim Fellowship in 2002 and the Joan Mitchell Foundation Fellowship award in 2001.
University Art Gallery hours are Tuesday - Friday, 11a.m. - 4 p.m.; weekends, noon - 4 p.m. Closed Mondays and holidays. For more information, please call (707) 664-2295 or e-mail Michael Schwager at schwager@sonoma.edu