July 17 - 22, 2020
A solo exhibition visible from the street-level window facade of the Nasher Sculpture Center, featuring Longhui Zhang.
From the Nasher.
“With his installation Together Always, Longhui Zhang focuses on the suitcase as a symbol of identity—a container of self and a vehicle for transformation. Comprising multiple found pieces of luggage the artist unifies into a single sculpture through the application of white paint, Together Always recalls Louise Nevelson’s monochromatic assemblages that join found objects in formal compositions or Ai Weiwei’s politically charged installations that transform such mundane things as bicycles, sunflower seeds, or wooden stools into ruminations on human rights. Here, Zhang’s installation of stacked white luggage evokes images of fleeing refugees, college kids returning home, or anyone simply piling histories and burdens together in one place. Together Always is particularly poignant in the midst of the global pandemic, which has impacted travel and restricted movement all over the world.
Artist Longhui Zhang on Together Always:
“The idea of immigration and travel is present in the Suitcase Series. I make sculpture bringing together multiple pieces of luggage, suitcases, purses, backpacks, and computer bags, that I paint white and arrange on the wall or in stacks on the floor. Each permanently closed suitcase represents the individual stories, cultures, and personalities of people moving from city to city, or country to country, and the idea of tabula rasa or the notion of living free from the past and renewing oneself with a new identity in a new place.
As a visual artist in the US, it is very interesting and important for me to look back on the idea of the American Dream that my family ingrained in me while growing up in China. Through personal reflection and discovery of the past decade of my immigration experience, I want to deliver a message of what is real and what is not about immigrants’ belief in the so-called ‘American Dream’.”
About Longhui Zhang
Originally from Fujian, China, Longhui Zhang is an interdisciplinary artist with a background in studio art and mixed-media design. Zhang works across a broad range of media, from traditional painting to sculpture, installation, performance, and digital video art. His work emerges from personal interests in politics, culture, and the US immigration experience. He holds a BFA in Multimedia Animation and Web Design from the China Academy of Art and an MFA in Drawing & Painting from University of North Texas.
Zhang has exhibited in Beijing, Shanghai, and Fujian, China, and throughout the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex. His work is in the collections of the China Cultural Palace of Nationalities in Beijing and the Crow Collection of Asian Art in Dallas. Zhang lives and works in Plano, Texas where he runs private art workshops and is Associate Professor at Collin College.”
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