I, Buffalo

Artist Lien Truong American, born Vietnam, 1973

Date2017

MediumAcrylic, silk, fabric paint, antique gold-leaf obi thread, black salt and smoke on linen

Dimensions96 x 72 in. (243.8 x 182.9 cm)

ClassificationsMixed Media

Credit LinePurchased with funds from the William R. Roberson Jr. and Frances M. Roberson Endowed Fund for North Carolina Art

Object number2017.16

On View

Not on view

Label TextThe tactile and unfinished quality of I, Buffalo presents a whirling sense of traveling through time and space. The painting moves the viewer along a Silk Road of centuries past, through to the American West, with fluttering cloth surrounded by depictions of colorful plants, distant mountains, and historic textile designs.
Drawing on motifs from the East (as both a concrete location and an abstract fiction), as well as the complex narratives that exist around the textile trade, Truong’s layered composition entangles and twists historical narratives, offering a new alternative. With painterly gestures that mimic water or maps, Truong blends abstract gestures with elements of landscapes, past and present.
[L.Dougherty, 2026]ProvenanceCreated Chapel Hill, NC, 2017; collection of the artist; [LIGHT Art + Design, Chapel Hill]; sold to NCMA, 2017.Published ReferencesNorth Carolina Museum of Art, "The People's Collection," (Raleigh, NC; North Carolina Museum of Art, 2024), illus. (color) 25.Exhibition HistoryChapel Hill, NC, LIGHT Art + Design, “UNC Art Faculty,” August 18–October 7, 2017.

Raleigh, NC, North Carolina Museum of Art, "The People's Collection, Reimagined," October 7, 2022–May 1, 2023. Object Rights Statement

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