Group Exhibition: The River Never Runs Dry
Sanié Bokhari, Michelle Favin, Nahyun Kim, LUPA, Nancy Nguyen, Kieu Tran & Song L. Wu
Dates: March 1 - April 5, 2025
Reception: March 1 | 6-8 PM
Glass Rice is proud to present The River Never Runs Dry, an all-female group exhibition exploring the varying ways artists across the Asian diaspora connect to a deeper sense of self and belonging. Through transcendental spiritual abstraction, primordial landscapes, and figuration, the artists tap into a well of ancestral knowledge unique to them to create work rooted in spirituality, identity, and interconnection.
Despite their different cultural backgrounds, the artists dip into the same diasporic river - a river that allows them to confront feelings of alienation, build realms of connection that transcend physical space, and develop a devotional practice that flows right back into the generative river they draw from.
Sanié Bokhari’s paintings are deeply rooted in the symbolic language of postcolonial Pakistan, delving into its intricate history, politics, religion, mythologies, and patriarchal traditions. She reimagines alternative realities, weaving surreal and magical narratives that explore the fluidity of human migration through time and space. In Bass Head, Bokhari depicts a hybrid creature in a deep backbend, suspended within a spiritual realm—an alter ego embodying introspection and transformation. In this meditative posture, with her heart space open, she forges a bridge between ancestral ties and the present, embracing both with vulnerability. Her work pays homage to her heritage, incorporating traditional Pakistani rugs and shrouding figures in an atmospheric charcoal haze, evocative of the smog that lingers over her hometown of Lahore.
In Searching For The Summit When All There is to Find is The Now, Michelle Favin explores the Buddhist concept of the Bardo, a fleeting, transitional space where one way of being evolves into another. In her interpretation, the Bardo is a state of dynamic ambiguity and potential. Being in the Bardo opens a portal of possibility between what was and what could be, centering our experience in the continual threshold of the present moment. Through traditional East Asian aesthetics of void and form, paired with the symbology of the spiral, Favin suggests that by existing in the Bardo, the peaks of the past and present dissolve into the infinite now.
Inspired by Korean folktales, surreal landscapes, and the elemental harmony of Korean Shamanism, Nahyun Kim’s diptych presents two scenes of a primordial world encoded with symbols of connection. Devotion and Tell Them We Need Help both incorporate her interpretation of the five elements—water, fire, metal, tree, and land—which, in Korean shamanism, shape destiny (Sa-Ju, 사주). Layers of color reflect Oh-Bang-Sek (오방색), Korea’s traditional hues of blue, white, red, yellow, and black, fostering harmony and a sense of home. Guided by ancestral wisdom, her landscapes explore her origins - honoring the past while shaping the future. Driven by an innate desire to share these messages, Kim’s work sparks connection, transcends earthly limits, and inspires liberation.
Willow Pond by LUPA immerses the viewer in a world where time feels suspended, echoing the ancient symbolism of the willow tree—its branches once exchanged as tokens of farewell. The tranquil scene unfolds, where bathing ladies rest, their identities obscured, serene and melancholic as if hesitating between the tangible world and the desire to drift beyond it. The painting evokes the quiet nostalgia of a traveler crossing a familiar yet distant pond, where memories falter and emotions waver like ripples on the water’s surface. The interplay of light and shadow, softness and depth, captures a fleeting, almost dreamlike moment—an intimate reflection on longing, transition, and the ephemeral nature of time.
Nancy Nguyen’s work explores paradoxes within Buddhist texts, seeking to unravel nature into transphenomenal experiences. Through painting, she engages with the tension between awareness and dissolution - a space where the limits of human existence become sharply defined. Nguyen’s approach to composition is often unplanned. In Bowing to an Empty Room, shades of terracotta swirl and blend together in an intricate dance of push and pull. Only after the painting is complete does she begin to recognize undefined yet familiar forms within the canvas. Currently influenced by The Dominion of the Dead, Nguyen is reflecting on the idea that "death claims our awareness before it claims our lives." This notion weaves through her work, guiding an inquiry into the impermanence of being and the ways we perceive, confront, and ultimately dissolve into the world around us.
Drawing from personal history, Kieu Tran creates biomorphic ceramic sculptures that embody the fluidity of identity, memory, and emotional transcendence. She transforms deeply personal narratives into meditative explorations of universal human longing such as love, belonging, and connection - what she calls sculpting the human soul actualized. Emphasizing its transformative nature, she sees clay as both a metaphor and a medium - one that, like the human experience, bears the imprint of external forces. Tran builds forms that act as psychological self-portraits, recording the imprint of her gestures, memories, and emotions. Rooted in introspection and surrender, her practice embraces the meditative dialogue between artist and material.
L. Song Wu’s paintings probe the fraught space between intimacy and alienation, challenging notions of belonging, place, and femininity. Pulling imagery from her own life and memories, she pairs these visions with sources from anime, Youtube thumbnails, and contemporary culture to craft a world that refracts her ideas of place and self in today’s landscape. In Wishing Well, Wu delves into desire and alienation - how inclusion and exclusion shape a scene, and how the interplay of figures, spaces, and objects blurs the line between familiarity and estrangement. A pair of huddled figures whisper secrets just beyond the viewer’s reach - an inside joke, a confession, perhaps about the viewer. Her work embraces ambiguity, where mysteries linger unresolved.
Sanié Bokhari, Michelle Favin, Nahyun Kim, LUPA, Nancy Nguyen, Kieu Tran & Song L. Wu
Dates: March 1 - April 5, 2025
Reception: March 1 | 6-8 PM
Glass Rice is proud to present The River Never Runs Dry, an all-female group exhibition exploring the varying ways artists across the Asian diaspora connect to a deeper sense of self and belonging. Through transcendental spiritual abstraction, primordial landscapes, and figuration, the artists tap into a well of ancestral knowledge unique to them to create work rooted in spirituality, identity, and interconnection.
Despite their different cultural backgrounds, the artists dip into the same diasporic river - a river that allows them to confront feelings of alienation, build realms of connection that transcend physical space, and develop a devotional practice that flows right back into the generative river they draw from.
Sanié Bokhari’s paintings are deeply rooted in the symbolic language of postcolonial Pakistan, delving into its intricate history, politics, religion, mythologies, and patriarchal traditions. She reimagines alternative realities, weaving surreal and magical narratives that explore the fluidity of human migration through time and space. In Bass Head, Bokhari depicts a hybrid creature in a deep backbend, suspended within a spiritual realm—an alter ego embodying introspection and transformation. In this meditative posture, with her heart space open, she forges a bridge between ancestral ties and the present, embracing both with vulnerability. Her work pays homage to her heritage, incorporating traditional Pakistani rugs and shrouding figures in an atmospheric charcoal haze, evocative of the smog that lingers over her hometown of Lahore.
In Searching For The Summit When All There is to Find is The Now, Michelle Favin explores the Buddhist concept of the Bardo, a fleeting, transitional space where one way of being evolves into another. In her interpretation, the Bardo is a state of dynamic ambiguity and potential. Being in the Bardo opens a portal of possibility between what was and what could be, centering our experience in the continual threshold of the present moment. Through traditional East Asian aesthetics of void and form, paired with the symbology of the spiral, Favin suggests that by existing in the Bardo, the peaks of the past and present dissolve into the infinite now.
Inspired by Korean folktales, surreal landscapes, and the elemental harmony of Korean Shamanism, Nahyun Kim’s diptych presents two scenes of a primordial world encoded with symbols of connection. Devotion and Tell Them We Need Help both incorporate her interpretation of the five elements—water, fire, metal, tree, and land—which, in Korean shamanism, shape destiny (Sa-Ju, 사주). Layers of color reflect Oh-Bang-Sek (오방색), Korea’s traditional hues of blue, white, red, yellow, and black, fostering harmony and a sense of home. Guided by ancestral wisdom, her landscapes explore her origins - honoring the past while shaping the future. Driven by an innate desire to share these messages, Kim’s work sparks connection, transcends earthly limits, and inspires liberation.
Willow Pond by LUPA immerses the viewer in a world where time feels suspended, echoing the ancient symbolism of the willow tree—its branches once exchanged as tokens of farewell. The tranquil scene unfolds, where bathing ladies rest, their identities obscured, serene and melancholic as if hesitating between the tangible world and the desire to drift beyond it. The painting evokes the quiet nostalgia of a traveler crossing a familiar yet distant pond, where memories falter and emotions waver like ripples on the water’s surface. The interplay of light and shadow, softness and depth, captures a fleeting, almost dreamlike moment—an intimate reflection on longing, transition, and the ephemeral nature of time.
Nancy Nguyen’s work explores paradoxes within Buddhist texts, seeking to unravel nature into transphenomenal experiences. Through painting, she engages with the tension between awareness and dissolution - a space where the limits of human existence become sharply defined. Nguyen’s approach to composition is often unplanned. In Bowing to an Empty Room, shades of terracotta swirl and blend together in an intricate dance of push and pull. Only after the painting is complete does she begin to recognize undefined yet familiar forms within the canvas. Currently influenced by The Dominion of the Dead, Nguyen is reflecting on the idea that "death claims our awareness before it claims our lives." This notion weaves through her work, guiding an inquiry into the impermanence of being and the ways we perceive, confront, and ultimately dissolve into the world around us.
Drawing from personal history, Kieu Tran creates biomorphic ceramic sculptures that embody the fluidity of identity, memory, and emotional transcendence. She transforms deeply personal narratives into meditative explorations of universal human longing such as love, belonging, and connection - what she calls sculpting the human soul actualized. Emphasizing its transformative nature, she sees clay as both a metaphor and a medium - one that, like the human experience, bears the imprint of external forces. Tran builds forms that act as psychological self-portraits, recording the imprint of her gestures, memories, and emotions. Rooted in introspection and surrender, her practice embraces the meditative dialogue between artist and material.
L. Song Wu’s paintings probe the fraught space between intimacy and alienation, challenging notions of belonging, place, and femininity. Pulling imagery from her own life and memories, she pairs these visions with sources from anime, Youtube thumbnails, and contemporary culture to craft a world that refracts her ideas of place and self in today’s landscape. In Wishing Well, Wu delves into desire and alienation - how inclusion and exclusion shape a scene, and how the interplay of figures, spaces, and objects blurs the line between familiarity and estrangement. A pair of huddled figures whisper secrets just beyond the viewer’s reach - an inside joke, a confession, perhaps about the viewer. Her work embraces ambiguity, where mysteries linger unresolved.