Overlapping Tension

Many artists find the barrage of information encountered in contemporary culture through social media and news sources an increasing source of inspiration for critique. Though cultures around the world are tightly stitched together through this constant contact, we experience vastly disparate realities. Overlapping Tension features works by Los Angeles, CA-based Yasmine Diaz, Pittsburgh, PA-based Vanessa German, and Tucson, AZ-based Laura Tanner Graham. Each of these three diverse artists offers a glimpse into their own cultural history by layering highly charged imagery from politics, pop culture, and history in her artwork.

The title Overlapping Tension is taken from Yasmine Diaz’s artist statement, reflecting on the way her collages “navigate overlapping tensions found between religion, gender, and third-culture identity.” As a Yemeni-American raised in a Muslim home, Diaz mines personal and found imagery from the mixed cultures she exists within to create an insightful new perspective. This work, often grounded by subtly hand-cut patterns, reflects the clash of cultures felt by many first-generation Americans. Vanessa German’s works layer commonly found and recognizable materials like newspaper, clocks, dolls, and shells. German combines these materials to create her sculptural “power figures”, which are stately idols featuring resonant representations of African American history. Her mixed media paintings on newspaper are direct, emotional responses to news of continued violence enacted upon the African American community. These works visually contrast Laura Tanner Graham’s delicately hand-cut references to historical socio-political events. Graham’s patterns are informed by antebellum traditions while balancing the changing ideals of the new generation of southern society. Like Diaz, Graham’s patterns are a subtle but constant reference to the material history of a culture.