A Handmade Night

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Vanessa Lam, “Scalds Sleeping Love,” 2019

mixed media on wood panel, 40” x 33”

Vanessa Lam’s show, A Handmade Night, takes its poetic title from a passage in a book by American writer Rebecca Solnit. The layered accounts in Solnit’s 2013 memoir, The Faraway Nearby, struck a chord with the Vancouver artist, who also found titles for her dramatic abstract paintings in its pages. 

For instance, Scalds Sleeping Love, part of Lam’s show at the Ian Tan Gallery in Vancouver from Oct. 5 to Oct. 31, is full of boiling, roiling energy, and its movement is much like a spill or splash. 

Painted on a wooden panel – the grain is visible in places – it features pools of viscous paint as well as fainter stains and washes. The texture, too, is varied for Lam applied paint using various tools, even spraying it in places.

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Vanessa Lam, “House of Exhalations,” 2019

mixed media on canvas, 52.5” x 58.5”

Her process – both additive and subtractive – creates depth, much the way that Solnit layers her personal memories with broader accounts of history, mythology and pop culture, writing in The Faraway Nearby about everything from her mother’s apricots to Wile. E. Coyote, Che Guevera and her own cancer surgery.

“There’s something about a turn of phrase, or words, that I really enjoy,” says Lam. “Something that’s really well written just captures my attention. I tend to pause and … spend more time with it.”

Raised by pragmatic parents, Lam was a latecomer to art, and credits rock climbing – where she learned to take measured risks within a supportive community – for her decision to finally explore her passion for art in a serious way.

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Vanessa Lam, “Refraction No. 4,” 2018

collage on paper, 18” x 16”

“The work that I make is based on my everyday observations of my surroundings,” she says. “I’m really interested in texture and colour and shape and how to highlight that. My process is very intuitive. It’s very spontaneous. It’s sort of action based. It refers to abstract expressionism, so it’s very organic. 

“Often it comes from my experiences and observations of everyday experiences. So if I see rust on a piece of metal by the side of the road, I might take that as a jumping off point for a new colour palette.” ■

A Handmade Night is on view at the Ian Tan Gallery in Vancouver from Oct. 5 to Oct. 31, 2019. 

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