Borderless
Image: Darcie Book and Vy Ngo, Untitled Works in Progress 1, Myrtle bark, genuine turquoise & hematite pigment, and watercolor on Arches, 2023
Darcie Book & Vy Ngo
Exhibition Dates: Aug 17th, 2023 - Sept 16th, 2023
Opening Reception: Friday, Aug 18th, 7-10 pm
About
ICOSA Collective is proud to present Borderless, an exhibition of new work by Darcie Book and Vy Ngo. The artists invite you to experience an abstract landscape that considers the limitless possibilities of existence in a space without confines.
Materially and conceptually, Book and Ngo consider the realms where boundaries meet and redefine them to build new worlds. Incorporating sculptural painting, installations, and natural materials, the artists remove barriers separating humans from land and humans from each other.
Borderless is an exhibition about world-building, and about forming unexpected connections.
About the Artists
Darcie Book (b. 1981, Baltimore, MD) is a multidisciplinary artist whose work explores paint as object and architecture. She transforms materials by stretching the limits of their intended use, and employs a sort of alchemy: pairing commonplace materials like acrylic house paint, XPS insulation foam, and metal leaf so the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. Book has an extensive exhibition history including The Baltimore Museum of Art, Tiger Strikes Asteroid (Los Angeles), and DiverseWorks, and was published in Sculpture Magazine and the Manifest International Painting Annual. Residencies include Vermont Studio Center, Mauser Foundation (Costa Rica), Future Front Texas, and Facebook AIR. She co-founded Crit Nites, an inclusive critique series for a diverse cross-section of artists to build community and exchange feedback. Honors include the Belle Foundation for Cultural Development grant, an unsolicited international award for achievement in the arts and humanities.
Vy Ngo (b. 1975, Harrisburg, PA) is a visual artist, who draws influences from her life as a Vietnamese-American, a physician, mother, and activist. Born to refugee parents in rural Pennsylvania, her passion for the arts was overshadowed by cultural expectations, an interest in the sciences, and the desire to serve others. After establishing a career in medicine, Vy finally came back to her creative self and began painting in 2015 which has expanded to 3-D sculptural paintings and site-specific installation work. Vy Ngo has had several solo exhibitions and group shows in public art spaces and galleries in Texas and across the country from California to Tennessee. Her work has been acquired by private and public permanent collections, such as Austin City Hall and Texas A&M Multicultural Center and has drawn attention from various publications and media, such as Tribeza, Austin Woman, PBS Arts in Context and listed as one of the “10 Contemporary Artists in Austin to Know” by Culture Trip. Whether it be representational work, abstract paintings, or large-scale installations, Vy Ngo creates work and
spaces for dialogue and introspection about identity, culture, political issues, memories, and the human experience.
