Xiao Xin Lu prints at Vanderbilt U. Arts Gallery

Wednesday, 19 December 2007 00:37

NASHVILLE, TN – The Vanderbilt University Fine Arts Gallery is pleased to announce the upcoming exhibition, Somewhere In Between : Recent Prints by Xiao Xin Lu, the 2006 Margaret Stonewall Wooldridge Hamblet Award Winner Exhibition. This show will present recent prints by Xiao Xin Lu, who earned her B.A. from Vanderbilt in 2006 and received the Hamblet Award to fund travel and further study after graduation. Somewhere In Between opens Thursday, January 10, with a reception in honor of the artist from 5:00 to 7:00 p.m. at the Fine Arts Gallery.

Shortly after completing her studies, Lu traveled to Fuzhou, China for an extended period, before returning to Tennessee. The trip represented something of a personal quest for the artist, reconnecting her to cultural and ethnic roots that had previously informed her work indirectly.

Drawing from several powerful experiences abroad, Lu has created a suite of monotype prints which reflect subtle societal rifts caused by the erosion of Eastern traditions by Western modernity. These works depict a range of scenarios - from stark scenes of domesticity to barren landscapes of wildlife and architecture. Many are stitched with thread, and all exhibit a deceptively unassuming tone. In one instance, the artist juxtaposes painterly drips with incredibly small vertical lines of Mandarin text, suggesting a stillness that seems to slow the movement of the viewer’s eye. In other works, her minute attention to detail allows room for the contemplation of printmaking‘s delicacy and seems to suggest differences in the flow of time between cultures. Given current international tensions surrounding China’s struggle to come to terms with a seemingly inevitable contemporarily, these works are remarkably timely.

The Margaret Stonewall Wooldridge Hamblet Award, given annually to a graduating Vanderbilt University senior, is one of the nation’s highest independent cash prizes for excellence in undergraduate studio art. Lu's award, a $25,000 grant was used for travel and study during the year following her graduation.

While a student, she was the recipient of the Vanderbilt’s Cooley Art History Award. After graduation, Lu studied at the Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts in Gatlinburg, Tennessee (where she was awarded the School’s Distinguished Media Award), and also exhibited in Nashville‘s Cumberland Gallery as a part of their recent “Small Packages" group show.

The Vanderbilt University Fine Arts Gallery in Nashville, Tennessee, is a leading collegiate art gallery. The permanent collection consists of more than 5,500 works, including Asian and African art; nineteenth and twentieth-century European and American paintings and sculpture; Egyptian, Greek, and Roman art; medieval sculpture; early Italian Renaissance paintings; and an extensive collection of historic and contemporary works on paper. The gallery is located on the first floor of the Fine Arts Building, also known as the Old Gym, at 23rd and West End Avenues, Nashville, Tennessee. For more information, please visit the gallery’s website at www.vanderbilt.edu/gallery or call 615-322-0605. All events are free and open to the public.