Surface Tension: In-Person Reception

Surface Tension explores ideas of dimensionality in photography. The exhibition includes photographic installations by Sophia Chai and Christine Nguyen; and the dimensional photographic works of Paula McCartney and Letha Wilson. Exhibition essay written by Lex Thompson. In-person artist talks by Christine Nguyen and Sophia Chai. A virtual artist talk with Letha Wilson and Paula McCartney will be held on December 1 at 7 p.m. CT. 

About the Artists:

Sophia Chai is a Rochester-based artist born in South Korea who immigrated to New York City at fourteen. Chai received her B.A. in chemistry from the University of Chicago and her M.F.A. in photography from the University of Illinois at Chicago. Before relocating to Rochester, MN, in 2017 from Brooklyn, New York, Chai showed her work in group exhibitions at venues in New York City, including Trestle Projects, the Bronx Museum of the Arts, Knockdown Center, A.I.R. Gallery, and TSA Gallery, among others. In addition to a solo exhibition at 106 Green (Brooklyn) in 2016, Chai mounted two solo exhibitions in 2020: Sight Lines at the Rochester Art Center (Minnesota) and Interpolation at Hair + Nails Gallery in Minneapolis. Chai is grateful for the financial support she has received from the Southeastern Minnesota Arts Council (2019), the Minnesota State Arts Board (2020 and 2022), and the Jerome Foundation (2019-2020). Chai is presently working on her first permanent public outdoor art project for Discovery Walk, a new four-block linear parkway in downtown Rochester, commissioned by the city of Rochester and Destination Medical Center. Chai is represented by Hair + Nails Gallery in Minneapolis.

Christine Nguyen was born and raised in California and currently resides in Aurora, Colorado, and also works in Long Beach, California. She is a lover of animals, plants, and nature. She received her B.F.A from California State University, Long Beach and M.F.A from University of California, Irvine. Exhibitions of her work have been shown nationally and internationally. Her works can be found in various collections such as the J. Paul Getty Museum Department of Photographs; Getty Research Institute; Armand Hammer Museum; Grunwald Center for Graphic Art; Los Angeles World Airport’s Collection; Cedars-Sinai in Los Angeles, CA; Burger Collection, Hong Kong; The Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology (RMIT), Hanoi, Vietnam; Long Beach Museum of Art; Kleefeld Contemporary Art Museum in Long Beach, California; Cleveland Clinic, Cleveland, Ohio; and Microsoft Collection.

She has been an Artist In Residence at Montello Foundation, NV; Pacific Bonsai Museum, WA; Gyeongju Int. Residency Art Festa 2018, Korea; Theodore Payne Foundation, CA; BaikArt with Cemeti Art House, Indonesia; U.S Department of Interior - BLM Eastern Interior AIR, Alaska; Wildfjords (WFAR), Iceland; Montalvo Art Center, CA; Tamarind Institute, NM; and the Headlands Center for the Arts, CA.