Tidawhitney Lek: Marooned on Foreign Feelings

Introduction

Victoria Miro Projects is delighted to present Marooned on Foreign Feelings, an exhibition of new work by LA-based artist Tidawhitney Lek. This is the eighth project in an ongoing series of presentations by invited international artists on Vortic.

Tidawhitney Lek’s paintings offer an intimate meditation on notions of memory, displacement and cultural identity. Drawing inspiration from her upbringing as a first-generation Cambodian American, her layered compositions seamlessly blend memory and reality. By combining personal narratives of her early childhood with broader themes of home and belonging, Lek invites viewers to engage with the complexities of selfhood, assimilation and storytelling. She views her works as realms in which ‘Identity seems like an endless journey of unravelling and reckoning across generational timelines and personal histories.’

Reflecting on her experience growing up, the artist notes, ‘Family stories were in pieces, scattered across a history that seemed out of reach, leaving me to wonder if I truly understood the essence of one’s roots. I suppose there was always a disconnect, that it was only the surface that I witnessed in others and myself, and what I could not see was the whole that had been.’

Seeking to explore beyond the surface, the dreamlike worlds in Lek’s paintings are inspired by myriad sources – photographs, some taken by the artist, of nearby beaches, local markets, familiar domestic interiors and the distant homeland of her parents – woven together and often set against the backdrop of a southern California sunset. The paintings on view employ a combination of techniques. The use of acrylic paint in thin watercolour-like washes seems to recede from the viewer and is juxtaposed by the opacity of oil paint, pastel, and glitter in the foreground of her scenes.

Lek deconstructs, examines and reshapes her sense of self, navigating the tension between her family’s past and her present. Her work reflects on how inherited histories are reinterpreted, altered, or even lost through adaptation. As she describes, ‘In the end, I’ve been marooned, left to face the definite yet unfamiliar landscape of assimilation.’

A new painting, Made in Cambodia, 2024 by Lek will be included in the ‘Galleries Together’ for LA Arts Community Fire Relief Fund initiative at Frieze Los Angeles.

Audio clips, which can be listened to while navigating the virtual exhibition, have been taken from Lek's personal recordings and family videos.

Works

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Tidawhitney Lek

Tidawhitney Lek was born in Long Beach, California, USA in 1992. She completed her BFA at California State University, Long Beach in 2017.

Solo exhibitions include Living Spaces, Long Beach Museum of Art, California, USA (2023); My Walk, Taymour Grahne Projects, London, UK (2022); House Hold, Sow & Tailor, Los Angeles, USA (2022); and Reminiscing, Taymour Grahne Projects, London, UK (2021). Two-person exhibitions include What Will You Give?, Sidecar Gallery, Los Angeles, USA (2024) and Cultural Undertow, Luna Anaïs Gallery, Los Angeles, USA (2021). Group exhibitions include Prospect 2024, Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego, USA (2024); Spirit House, Cantor Arts Center, Stanford University, Stanford, California, USA (2024); The First Taste, Anat Ebgi, New York, USA (2024); Cross Currents, Micki Meng, San Francisco, USA (2024); Made in L.A., Hammer Museum, Los Angeles, USA (2023); Ghost of Empires II, Ben Brown Fine Arts, London, UK (2022); Loveline, Long Beach Museum of Art, California, USA (2021); and Fire Figure Fantasy, ICA Miami, Florida, USA (2021).

Lek’s work is in institutional collections including the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, USA; Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego, USA; Los Angeles County Museum of Art, USA; K11 Art Foundation, Hong Kong; Pérez Art Museum Miami, Florida, USA; East West Bank Collection, Pasadena, California, USA; Columbus Museum of Art, Ohio, USA; and ICA Miami, Florida, USA.

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