GALLERY ETHER is excited to announce TRANSMUTATION, a solo-exhibition of new sculptural work by Toronto based artist Huy Lam, to be held from Friday August, 6th through Friday, August 27th, 2021.

In his first solo-exhibition in Japan, TRANSMUTATION, Huy Lam expands the visual lexicon of his sculptural work to reflect the changes and challenges we have all come to face during the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. While the human desire to create order within our seemingly random and chaotic world remains, the fragility of that order has been exposed. What was once familiar and comfortable now deviates into new and unknown variations. Elements of the old order remain but have been altered and reconfigured into something that is somehow recognizable but foreign at the same time, forcing us to reconsider our own place in the order of the world as we too are changed into some part of this strange new normal. 

“The unexpected intersections of our lives have always fascinated me. Our disparate trajectories collide and create causal shockwaves across time and space that have lasting, irreversible impact. Although linearity exists neither in life nor in nature, the human mind attempts to impose order upon a seemingly disordered world. This series of wood sculptures explores that paradoxical impulse, as stark straight lines of metal penetrate the free-flowing wood grain, bringing a flash of order to randomness. Just as I have carved out these paths in wood, collectively we strive to make our mark by blazing bright trails in a dark, dynamic universe.

These bright trails are as impermanent as the individuals who strive so mightily to create them. The reflective, light-bouncing quality of the metal demonstrates this impermanence with every passing moment." - Huy Lam