Instagram sensation Dan Lam’s technicolor sculptures on view at the McNay Art Museum
Instagram sensation Dan Lam’s fantastical, technicolor sculptures are on exhibit at the McNay Art Museum show Beyond Reality. Lam’s eye-catching sculptures use unconventional materials to playfully yet thoughtfully explore the space between allure and repulsion. Made of painted polyurethane foam and often covered in spikes, her blob-like pieces that appear to melt and drip.
“The McNay Art Museum is showing an array of my work from 2017 to present, which includes wall pieces, shelf pieces, and free standing sculptures. I’m so excited to be exhibiting with such a strong group of Texas artists.” – Dan Lam
Beyond Reality also includes artwork by three other Texas-based artists who came of age in the early 21st century: Carlos Donjuan, Angela Fox, and Ernesto Ibañez, who all use bright colors, eccentric shapes, and unexpected textures to create captivating works that thrill the senses. Delicious Monster, one of Lam’s largest drip sculptures to date, is featured in the show. The show also includes some of Lam’s dynamic beaded wall pieces, like Wait A Little Longer, a material that Lam has only worked with on one solo exhibition. “While social media provides immediate global accessibility and recognition for artists and their work, museums continue to play an important role by providing a deeper connection between the viewer and the art. The work by these artists exudes a playful, tangible richness and complexity that goes beyond a photograph. The in-person experience is the reward.” -Liz Paris, McNay Collections Manager and co-organizer of the exhibition
Beyond Reality runs through August 13th, 2023.
About Dan Lam
Internationally acclaimed, prominent contemporary artist and social media Influencer; Dan Lam is an artist based out of Texas, US. Lam’s sculptural work expresses and plays with sensational dichotomies by combining unconventional materials, organic forms, and bright colors. With contrasting themes verging on beauty and grotesqueness at once, Lam’s art provokes its viewers to ponder meaning and existence while inspiring feelings of familiarity and wonder. Curiosity, play, and fun are the foundation of where Lam’s work begins. Her experimentation results in beautiful sculptures created with various materials such as foams, polyurethanes, resins, acrylics, and polymers, which defines her style. She has exhibited worldwide, and celebrity clients include Miley Cyrus, Demi Lovato, The Game, and Lily Aldridge. Notable art collectors, such as the Tisch family, have acquired her work. In addition, Lam has collaborated with prominent companies, including Facebook and Virgin, and renowned art producers, Meow Wolf. Her pieces have been featured in Architectural Digest, Travel and Leisure, and Forbes, amongst many other international media outlets.
About the McNay Art Museum
The McNay Art Museum engages a diverse community in the discovery and enjoyment of the visual arts. Built in the 1920s by artist and educator Marion Koogler McNay, the Spanish Colonial Revival residence became the site of Texas’s first modern art museum when it opened in 1954. Today, 200,000 visitors a year enjoy works by modern masters including Deborah Butterfield, Margarita Cabrera, Paul Gauguin, vanessa german, Vincent van Gogh, Edward Hopper, Joan Mitchell, Alice Neel, Georgia O’Keeffe, Pablo Picasso, Jackson Pollock, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, and Deborah Roberts. The 25 acres of beautifully landscaped grounds include sculptures by Willie Cole, Robert Indiana, Luis A. Jiménez Jr., Alejandro Martín, George Rickey, Joel Shapiro, Kiki Smith, Tom Wesselmann, and more. McNay is open Wednesday and Friday from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.; Thursday from 10 a.m. to 9 p.m.; Saturday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.; and Sunday from Noon to 5 p.m.