The Artist: Dinh Q Le (Lê Quang Đỉnh)

While visiting the Portland Art Museum last Friday, I was inpsired to learn of Lê Quang Đỉnh (Dinh Q Le).  At first glance I thought to myself what a unique affect on a photograph.  A closer observation delightfully surprised me that it is not just a photograph.  Rather stripes of photos weaved together in the traditons a SE Asian basket into a larger photo bearing layers to create symbolic and historical photo from the past. 

Look at this piece below... do you notice anything? There are two monumental pictures interlaced together: Tom Cruise in Born on the Fourth of July and a famouse photograph taken during the Vietnam War.



Untitled (Tom Cruise & Willam Dafoe,Born on the 4th of July/Highway 1)  2000
Source: Elizabeth Leach Gallery



Lê Quang Đỉnh

Born in Vietnam, at age 10 he and his family immigrated to Los Angeles after the Vietnamese invation of Cambodia.  Inspired by his aunt, Dihn Q Le studed photopgraphy at University of California, Santa Barbara and later received his Masters from the School of Visual Arts in New York.  He spends his time living between Los Angeles and Vietnam.

Untitled (Robert De Niro, The Deerhunter/bombing victim)  2000
Source: Elizabeht Leach Gallery

From Zero to First Generation  1997
Source: Elizabeth Leach Gallery

Untitled (Columbia Pictures) 2003
Source: PPOW

His array of artwork inlcudes not just photography but videos, sculptures, and urban intervention.  Most notable of his work are photo-weavings using traditional Vietnamese techniques.  Dinh Q Le would take strips of photos and weave them as one would weaving a basket.  Each work contains layers of weave, providing observors with layers of deep metaphoric feelings as they gaze at his pictures.

I am Large. I Contain Multitudes (1)  2009
Source: Elizabeth Leach Gallery

Source of photos: Elizabeth Leach Gallery and PPOW Gallery