The Albright-Knox’s latest special exhibition, Drawing: The Beginning of Everything, celebrates contemporary artists’ diverse approaches to the medium. Here on the blog, we’re taking a closer look at several artists featured in the exhibition.

Tam Van Tran’s distinctive working methods result in hand-molded abstractions that resemble aerial maps when viewed from afar. He begins works like Untitled by painting and drawing an image on paper that he then manipulates into a three-dimensional object by cutting, hole-punching, stapling, and other processes. Tran’s work is full of dualities—abstraction and representation, natural and manmade, terrestrial and otherworldly. Through his imagery the artist, who is a devout Buddhist, explores the complexity of our universe, aiming to reconcile East and West by pursuing meditative mindfulness and beauty alongside darker sensibilities of violence and aggression.