Tiger Strikes Asteroid Los Angeles is proud to present Verdant Loop: Works by Devon Tsuno, Hung Viet Nguyen, and Erin Harmon. The exhibition opens on Saturday, August 5th, with an opening reception from 7 - 10 PM, and runs to August 27th.

The works in Verdant Loop present landscape as an invented not-nature where pattern, surface, and color, conflate space and illusion. Devon Tsuno, Hung Viet Nguyen, and Erin Harmon each make work which evidences time in distinct ways, either with particular processes used for surface construction, and/or the time required to visually unpack them as a viewer.

Devon Tsuno’s paintings draw upon his observation and documentation of the LA Watershed and frequently both native and non-native plant species to create dense, rhythmic fields. Employing a palette of urban color akin to the spectacular smoggy sunsets of Los Angeles, subtle gradations converge against crisp silhouettes of reflections on water and flora. Often playing a game with color temperature and value to push and pull the eye in a basket-weave of foreground and background activity, Tsuno’s surfaces offer visual breadcrumbs of his processes and pull the viewer in. Multiple layers of stenciling, spray painting, and masking are evident, generating a painted surface which mimics collage.  

Hung Viet Nguyen similarly employs a multi-layered process, in more dramatically three dimensional ways. His “sacred landscapes” are generated by applying multi-hued coats of impasto oil paint which are then carved through to reveal strata-like surfaces. Translucent glazes act as optically mixed veneers, further complicating Nguyen’s color palette, for which he cites the light of Southern California as an inspiration. This physical process of addition and subtraction evidences time and generates dense, repetitive pattern. Lyrical forms and shapes are stacked, collapsing foreground, middle ground, and background into a kaleidoscopic field. Rather than a literal representation of landscape, Nguyen presents a visual expression of the senses while alluding to decorative arts such as scroll painting and wood block prints.

Erin Harmon uses pattern and repetition to create optical camouflage which both affirms the flatness of surface while simultaneously alluding to intimate intricate spaces. The presence of the hand and time is inescapable and although Harmon’s images often beckon like labyrinthine pathways, ultimately the work traps the eye in materiality.  By painting, pruning, and weaving together fetishized fragments so as to appear whole, Harmon generates taut, sealed spaces that hover between interior and exterior; tomb-like and thus ultimately removed from nature.  These works nod to the observed environment as well as 18th Century French decorative arts, and 1970’s psychedelic black-light posters.

Devon Tsuno (Los Angeles) Devon Tsuno has exhibited his work in prestigious venues such as the Hammer Museum Venice Beach Biennial, the US Embassy in New Zealand, Indianapolis Museum of Contemporary Art, and Roppongi 605 in Tokyo. Since 2003, Devon has worked as the founder/director of Concrete Walls, an artist run curatorial project that focuses on building community by facilitating collaborations, educational projects, and group exhibitions throughout Southern California. He is an Assistant Professor of Art at California State University, Dominguez Hills. Tsuno received an MFA from Claremont Graduate University in 2005 and a BFA from California State University, Long Beach in 2002.

Hung Viet Nguyen (Los Angeles) was born in Vietnam in 1957. He studied Biology at Science University in Saigon, Vietnam, and then transitioned to working as an illustrator, graphic artist and designer since his settlement in the U.S. in 1982. He developed his artistry skills independently, studying many traditional Eastern and Western forms, media and techniques. Nguyen has been represented and his paintings have been exhibited at Art Fairs including Art Market San Francisco, Art Context New York, Palm Beach Art Miami, Los Angeles Contemporary Art and the Houston Fine Arts Fair. His honors include the Juror’s Choice Awards, 2013, and the San Diego Art Institute Biennial International Award Exhibition, 2015.

Erin Harmon (Memphis, TN) was raised in the suburbs of Southern California where the natural desert is sated by hundreds of miles of canals to produce obsessively groomed lawns. After graduating from San Diego State University with a BA in Studio Art, she received her MFA in Painting from Rhode Island School of Design. Erin currently lives in the fertile Tennessee Delta where kudzu and coal sludge can swallow everything in their path. She has exhibited her work nationally in both group and solo exhibitions including Field Projects, NY; Sarah Doyle Gallery, Providence RI; Atlanta Artists Center & Gallery, GA; the Brooks Museum, Memphis, TN; and the Attleboro Arts Museum, MA. Erin is the James F. Ruffin Professor of Art at Rhodes College and a founding member of Tiger Strikes Asteroid Los Angeles.