If anyone has mastered the art of the drip, it is artist Dan Lam. Her organic yet otherworldly sculptures have gone viral, attracting hundreds of thousands of new followers on social media and new opportunities. Lam is the first woman sculptor to show at Wynwood Walls, and she recently did a backpack collab with Sprayground.
Now she has a solo show at New York’s Hashimoto Contemporary called “Guttation,” which features forty new artworks with her trademark glossy, gradient drips covered in what looks to be, at first glance, something like morning dew.
The name of the exhibition comes from biology. Cue Bill Nye: guttation is a natural process where plants push out their excess water via pores, leaving buds of water droplets around their petals or leaves. The result is a beautiful, beaded pattern.
“I was inspired by nature and organic processes, and I wanted my pieces to reflect this while still keeping to my style of drippy sculptures, but with a new take,” Lam told Observer.
Lam was born in Vietnam in 1988 and moved to the U.S. during her formative years. She graduated with a painting degree from the University of North Texas and then completed a master’s program at Arizona State University in 2014. It wasn’t until 2016 that Lam’s work took off when she started posting behind-the-scenes studio videos (like pouring paint on sculptures) on Instagram, which propelled her to virality.
Lam has since become an artist known for making what we understand to be internet-savvy pop art—it has a digital feel but is very textured and very........