Items Similar to Summer Glow
Video Loading
Want more images or videos?
Request additional images or videos from the seller
1 of 10
TMUSummer Glow2024
2024
About the Item
Trang Mỹ Uyen (TMU) is an artistic collaboration between Mary “Trang” Nguyen and Denise “Mỹ Uyen” Nguyen. The artists’ alias combines their Vietnamese given birth-names: Trang and Mỹ Uyen. In Vietnam, Trang is a popular girl's name whose meaning is defined as a serious, intelligent one, whereas Mỹ Uyen means beautiful (Mỹ) wisdom (Uyen). The similarities between the women’s names perhaps prophesied what was to become a deep bond between the women, and their profound connection endures—a kinship especially evident in their artistic collaboration, which features cohesive paintings that feel as if they were conceived of and executed by a single person rather than by way of partnership.
Depicted in this series is the pastoral landscape of the Hamptons, imagery that remains etched in memory from summers spent on Long Island, where Mary recalls wandering the idyllic shores and cliffsides of Montauk as a child. It was a simpler time, full of long, carefree days in the sun where curiosity flourished and the freedom of youth reigned. It is perhaps because Mary’s life had not always been so carefree that these treasured memories are so vivid in her mind some three decades later.
In the mid-1980s, when Mary was just a few years old, the Nguyen family immigrated to the States from Vietnam. As refugees, they were resettled in Pittsburgh, PA. Every summer from the age of six, Mary would escape to her aunt’s house in Sag Harbor. Long Island was a stark contrast to the often-dreary industrial urban scape of Pittsburgh. The splendid Hamptons summers provide an endless source of inspiration for the work of Trang Mỹ Uyen.
It is there that Mary forged her first cognitive observations of American culture. The affluence of Sag Harbor was palpable, thick in the atmosphere like the intoxicating scent of the balmy ocean that surrounded her. The sensations and scenery experienced all those years ago planted seeds of ambition that would later be harvested when Mary moved to New York City in her early twenties to make the American dream her own reality.
The work of Trang Mỹ Uyen goes beyond the physical landscape of Long Island. These oil paintings convey the expansive imagination of adolescence. Depictions of landscapes of the sea and surrounding cliffs are reinterpreted through the tender looking-glass of an adult fondly recalling the sentimentality of youth.
Through a distinct style that combines geometric abstraction with the modern landscape, each section of the rocky terrain is leveled down and reduced to its fundamental elements. The scenery is expressed in colorful patterns that recall the playful aesthetic of paint-by-number paintings that were popular throughout the 1970s and 80s, again drawing inspiration from her youth. Each work is composed of tiny jigsaw puzzle pieces that together create a tapestry of sky, sea, and land. They are at once nostalgic and contemporary— a metaphor for one’s own life, experienced over so many years yet remembered only through short but impactful moments.
For Mary, breathing new life into her childhood memories provides the perfect creative outlet for her to explore this formative time in her life. In 2022, she chaperoned her mother’s return to her homeland of Vietnam, where her mother plans to live out her remaining years. It was an emotional odyssey that incited an unexpected desire within Mary to consider more deeply the
trajectory of her own life path and, in doing so, brought about a need to express visually what can’t be captured in words alone. For Mary, this series feels like coming full circle– like coming home. It is a return to her roots and, at the same time, representative of the universal human experience; our familial bonds, our search for love, our journey to find a home.
In collaborating with Denise, Mary seeks to unite her life’s story with the next generation. By sharing these experiences with new audiences, she hopes we might better understand where their people have come from while lighting the path forward for whatever is to come.
- Creator:TMU (Vietnamese)
- Creation Year:2024
- Dimensions:Height: 30 in (76.2 cm)Diameter: 30 in (76.2 cm)
- Medium:
- Movement & Style:
- Period:
- Framing:Frame IncludedFraming Options Available
- Condition:
- Gallery Location:New York, NY
- Reference Number:1stDibs: LU1566214198942
About the Seller
5.0
Vetted Seller
These experienced sellers undergo a comprehensive evaluation by our team of in-house experts.
Established in 2010
1stDibs seller since 2021
29 sales on 1stDibs
Typical response time: 1 hour
More From This SellerView All
- Isla 12Located in New York, NYBorn in the province of Colón, Panamá in 1976, Thannyo De Freitas Navarro experienced an upbringing in which artistic expression and earthly connection were...Category
2010s Contemporary Landscape Paintings
MaterialsCanvas, Oil, Stretcher Bars
- Isla 06Located in New York, NYBorn in the province of Colón, Panamá in 1976, Thannyo De Freitas Navarro experienced an upbringing in which artistic expression and earthly connection were...Category
2010s Contemporary Landscape Paintings
MaterialsCanvas, Oil, Stretcher Bars
- Isla 11Located in New York, NYBorn in the province of Colón, Panamá in 1976, Thannyo De Freitas Navarro experienced an upbringing in which artistic expression and earthly connection were...Category
2010s Contemporary Landscape Paintings
MaterialsCanvas, Oil, Stretcher Bars
- Isla 09Located in New York, NYBorn in the province of Colón, Panamá in 1976, Thannyo De Freitas Navarro experienced an upbringing in which artistic expression and earthly connection were...Category
2010s Contemporary Landscape Paintings
MaterialsCanvas, Oil, Stretcher Bars
- Isla 01Located in New York, NYBorn in the province of Colón, Panamá in 1976, Thannyo De Freitas Navarro experienced an upbringing in which artistic expression and earthly connection were central. In response to h...Category
2010s Contemporary Landscape Paintings
MaterialsCanvas, Oil, Stretcher Bars
- Isla 13Located in New York, NYBorn in the province of Colón, Panamá in 1976, Thannyo De Freitas Navarro experienced an upbringing in which artistic expression and earthly connection were...Category
2010s Contemporary Landscape Paintings
MaterialsCanvas, Oil, Stretcher Bars
You May Also Like
- Beach GrassBy Kristen GarneauLocated in Mill Valley, CAoil on canvas Kristen Garneau lives in Northern California and has spent a lifetime with the inspiration that comes from ever-changing beautiful landscape – forest, mountain and ocea...Category
2010s Contemporary Landscape Paintings
MaterialsCanvas, Oil
- Anchor-R - contemporary abstract framed portrait seascape oil on canvasBy Simon LedsonLocated in London, GBSimon Ledson is a surfer, artist and graphic designer whose work is an experiment that investigates the way the rhythm of the ocean connects with the artist’s body and charts the imp...Category
2010s Contemporary Abstract Paintings
MaterialsOil, Canvas
- Landscape Color Study, Cake in the RainBy Lisa SanditzLocated in New Orleans, LALISA SANDITZ was born 1973 in St. Louis, MO. In 1994 she studied at the Studio Art Center International in Florence, Italy. In 1995 she received her BA from Macalester College, St. P...Category
21st Century and Contemporary Contemporary Abstract Paintings
MaterialsCanvas, Oil
- Vast no.9, RestoreBy Alyson KinkadeLocated in Loveland, CO"Vast no.9, Restore" by Alyson Kinkade Abstract Landscape Oil on Linen 36x36" image Black Metal cradle styled Frame, 37x37" After a year of storms, light...Category
2010s Contemporary Landscape Paintings
MaterialsCanvas, Linen, Oil
- Horse Candy no.2By Alyson KinkadeLocated in Loveland, COHorse Candy no.2 by Alyson Kinkade 24x20" oil on linen Abstraction of the great plains and farms. ABOUT THE ARTIST: "Over the years my focus has transitioned more and more toward ...Category
2010s Contemporary Landscape Paintings
MaterialsCanvas, Linen, Oil
- Water Earth Air IIIBy Alyson KinkadeLocated in Loveland, COWater Earth Air III by Alyson Kinkade 44x58" acrylic on canvas, gallery wrapped *due to scale, custom packing and extra lead time is factored into shipping for this item. ABOUT THE...Category
2010s Contemporary Landscape Paintings
MaterialsCanvas, Oil