A sweet rot. A slow burn. Charred rubber with a hint of lime. Salt in your saliva. Salt in your pussy. Salt in your eye. An aroma of burning tires. A smoky recollection. A second wind. A face tan. A night swim.
Face Tan/Night Swim narrates an environment in which steel, vinyl, color, and scent come together to simulate a post-tropical landscape. Part familiar, part foreign, Abigail Lucien’s sculptures exert an architectural vernacular, echoing structures and boundaries found in residential and commercial spaces. Mirroring forms with inherent dualities, Lucien’s work addresses notions of visibility, authenticity, and hybridity as they relate to diasporic identity. Face Tan/Night Swim enables space for the viewer to navigate the gallery as a tourist, and somewhere between the humming of oscillating fans and the odor of an odd citrus allows the voyeur to become the subject.
Events
- Friday, September 7, 6-10pm | Opening: September’s First Friday Reception
- Friday, October 5, 7pm | Abigail Lucien Curated Listening Night during October’s First Friday Reception
- Sunday, October 7, 3pm | Gallery Talk moderated by Wesley Flash
About the artist
Abigail Lucien is an interdisciplinary artist raised in Florida and Cap-Haitian, Haiti. She holds a BFA from Florida State University and an MFA in Printmaking from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. Lucien’s work foregrounds her dual Haitian-American nationality by looking at ways cultural identities and inherited colonial structures transmit to the body and psyche. Her work has been exhibited at museums and institutions such as MoMA PS1 in Long Island City, New York, Atlanta Contemporary in Atlanta, GA., Urban Institute for Contemporary Arts in Grand Rapids, Michigan, Museum of Fine Arts in Tallahassee, FL, Woman Made Gallery in Chicago, IL, and The Fabric Workshop and Museum in Philadelphia, PA. Lucien is currently based in Richmond, VA where she teaches in the Sculpture + Extended Media department at Virginia Commonwealth University. More info: www.abigaillucien.com