2 Rivers + 30 Years
Laura Heyman and Luxin Zhang
Presented as part of Just In Time: 30 Years of Collective Practice
Friday, April 26 – Sunday, June 23, 2019
Closing Reception: Artist Talk + Catalogue Release: Sunday, June 23, 2019 | 3-6pm
Laura Heyman’s involvement with Vox Populi Gallery started 1988, Luxin Zhang’s in 2018. Aside from this shared experience, they have another connection: Zhang was a student of Heyman’s for three years while working towards her MFA. Reversing the exchange that took place when Zhang was a student, 2 Rivers + 30 Years presents Zhang and Heyman working together under Zhang’s direction in a video work and vocal performance centered around Zhang’s attempts to teach Heyman to sing. Lessons are interspersed with the artists conversations around the structure and meaning of the piece, presenting their shared vision and points of friction to be negotiated in order to complete the work.
Extending the subject of collaboration and struggle across three screens, Zhang takes singing lessons from her mother, while Heyman attempts to translate what she’s learned from Zhang into lessons for her son. The resulting three-channel video questions multiple privileged positions within art and real-world hierarchies; teacher/student, elder/youth, citizen/emigrant and Eastern/Western world views.
About the Artists
Laura Heyman is an artist based in Upstate New York. Selected one and two person exhibitions include: Deutsch Polen Institute, Darmstadt, Germany, Senko Studio, Viborg, Denmark, Light Work Gallery, Syracuse, New York and PPAC, Philadelphia, PA. Selected group exhibitions include: Laguna Art Museum, Laguna, CA, Luggage Store Gallery, San Francisco, CA, The United Nations, New York, NY, and The National Portrait Gallery, London, UK. Heyman is the recipient of the Light Work Mid-Career Artist Grant, Silver Eye grant and a NYFA grant. Her work has been reviewed and profiled in The New Yorker, Contact Sheet, Women’s Review of Books, Frontiers, and ARTnews.
More Info: lauraheyman.com
Luxin Zhang is an interdisciplinary artist and curator who works in the fields of performance, video, sound and photography. As a classically trained vocalist, she creates video and performance that seek to break down the hierarchy of the stage by bringing the performance to the viewer, and playing with audience expectation. Luxin Zhang holds a B.S from Far Eastern University and received her MFA from Syracuse University in the College of Visual and Performing Arts. She has exhibited and performed both internationally in galleries, museums, concert halls, including Everson Museum of Art in Syracuse; David Geffen Hall, Lincoln Center in New York. Her work was also shown at Light Work in Syracuse, N.Y. She is currently an artist collective member at Vox Populi Gallery in Philadelphia, PA.
More Info: luxinzhang.com