Yamin Li - Out of Place

Yamin Li brings a new exhibition, Out of Place, to the Julia C. Butridge Gallery at the Dougherty Arts Center, running from August 22 through October 3. It's a series of acrylic paintings on linen that Li builds from her own experience as an immigrant, working through the feeling of being attached to one place while detached from another.

In the paintings, she mixes familiar things—houses, trees, figures, and toys—with fragments she's pulled from her everyday surroundings. The result is a set of psychological habitats and portraits that get at the complicated business of navigating between different environments and identities. It's the kind of work that asks you to sit with the challenge of being out of place, and to find a way to embrace it. One of the pieces on view is Chaos & Order, an acrylic on linen from 2021.

If you want to hear more from the artist herself, there are two good chances. The artist reception is Wednesday, August 26, from 7 to 9 PM, and later on, there's an artist talk on Wednesday, September 30, also from 7 to 9 PM—that one is a virtual event, so you can tune in from home. The gallery is at 1110 Barton Springs Rd, in the heart of the Dougherty Arts Center, and the show stays up through October 3.