INTERVIEW: Dan Lam on the Intoxicating Beauty of Her Art

With the opening of her newest installation for the Beyond Reality exhibit in San Antonio’s McNay Art Museum, Dan Lam shared how beauty and the act of creation inspire her work.

After going viral on TikTok, where she shares her creation process, Dan Lam has a year full of artistic ventures. Her recent installation in the Beyond Reality exhibit contrasts ideas of beauty and disgust in her signature resin sculptures.

Her art examines what happens when there is “too much beauty,” as she describes. The results are oozing, fluorescent sculptures that entice and tease the viewer. Lam takes on a Mad Scientist-esque role, focusing on the hands-on process of creating rather than trying to recreate or mimic any existing concept. She prides herself in the originality of her work and the interactive nature of it.

Here, Lam opens up about how concepts of beauty impact her work.

AVA: I read that in college, one of your professors told you that your work is too pretty and that really challenged you. And I’ve also read that you describe your artwork as contrasting themes of beauty and grotesqueness at the same time. Can you tell me a little bit more about how concepts of traditional beauty and beauty standards have affected your designs or the process and how you work?

DAN: It’s weird to have something dismissed when it’s beautiful. So in that way, like having that moment with that professor, it was like a catalyst moment to just sort of dig deeper into what beauty means and in all these different aspects and avenues. So at that point, I was like, “Well, you know, I don’t agree. I don’t agree with you. Like, you’re saying it’s beautiful, but so what?” So taking that and running with it, I was like, you know what happens when you have something in, it’s too beautiful. What does that look like? What does that feel like? So I started making work that was based around that idea. And it was fun because, you know, I use the metaphor of when you have like a beautiful desert and it just looks so good and it’s going to taste so yummy. But, you’re eating it and you’re eating it. It’s so good. But then there’s a point where suddenly it’s like, “Oh, like I’m too full, it’s too sweet, it’s too rich.” That’s how I sort of looked at art. I like the art that I made with those ideas, of where’s that line visually when you have something that’s so beautiful and maybe there’s just so much going on, or there’s just the tech, these textures or whatever it is like, where is that point of being a little bit repulsive?

AVA: So can you tell me a little bit more about why you gravitate to surrealism and how the process of creating these really surreal works is for you? The installation is called Beyond Reality. You kind of step into a new world when you create.

DAN: There are those visual connections, but I’m not out to recreate anything. I’m not trying to create these creatures or anything anthropomorphic. They end up having those qualities. And I think that comes from the inspiration from the natural world. So, I look at fungi or like slime molds or, even stuff like going on a hike and seeing a riverbed and seeing how the water’s eroded away the walls, and like how that’s built up over time. And just like those kinds of observations. And I take that back into the studio. So I think there’s this connection. When people see my work, they recognize that they see that there’s this organic quality to it that comes from nature. But because it’s using bright, bold colors and maybe textures that do not exist in nature, that’s where I think a surrealist or sci-fi fantasy, like type of aesthetic, I guess starts to appear. But that’s never my – that’s not where that inspiration comes from. There’s no intention of world-building. But I guess, like, that is what’s happening. So while I don’t think of it as like stepping into another reality, I think maybe it’s just like offset a little bit from this reality.

AVA: And you’re very hands-on. That’s really important to you. Can you tell me more about why it’s really important for you to physically engage with your art?

DAN: Well, I don’t want it to feel like mechanical. I don’t want to have a factory and just like, pump out work. I really enjoy making, I really enjoy working with my hands, and creating. And so, I don’t know, I think sometimes like that aspect of how I approach my work that comes across to people when they see my work, they want to get hands-on with it and they want to touch and feel it. And I think there’s something really fun about creating art. I think normally when we see art, it’s a seeing experience. We know we can’t touch it. So there’s something playful about making something that people want to touch but they can’t, you know, there’s like a little within that. There’s a push and pull off like they’re tempted, but they know they can’t. And I think the same goes with like showing it through social media like there’s a screen there, you can’t actually touch it. So you want to touch it. You want to like experience it with your hands, but you can’t.

AVA: I know you’ve mentioned previously that you really want to create art that is not passive. It takes a very active role in your audience to engage with it. So can you tell me why it’s so important for you, for the audience, to want to touch it? To want to step in kind to this active role in your art?

DAN: Without the viewer, without the other person, dialogue doesn’t really exist. It’s just you and the object versus you. The object and another person. And I didn’t realize how important that was to me until I started showing the work. And I was like, “Oh my God. Like, there’s this there’s a whole world there that I hadn’t really, like, delved into or thought about.” So then that makes me reflect on like when I go and look at art, when I go into like a museum and like, see an installation or whatever, like there’s, there’s something happening there. The artist has presented work and now I’m interacting with that work and, and it’s like. This thing is being passed between like the three of us, the art and the two people. And there’s something really beautiful about that. And it’s being said without words, which I think is amazing.

AVA: That’s very true. It’s like a conversation, but with a kind of a passive audience, it’s like, how do you have a conversation with an audience that just looks, right? […] So I know that you have some upcoming projects. You have a lot it seems, throughout the year. So could you just tell a little bit about what’s next, what’s coming up?

DAN: So I have three big things coming up in July. I have a solo show in Portland with Schaffer’s projects in August. I’m doing a mini release, which is like miniature versions of my work that I make here in the studio, and then I sell it directly through my website and like through social media. That’s August. And then in December, I have a solo show with Hashimoto Contemporary in New York.

AVA: Great. And so your installation and the Beyond Reality exhibit closes in August, right?

DAN: Mhm. August 13th? Yeah.

AVA: Okay, great. Well, thank you. Thank you so much again for your time.

DAN: Of course. Thank you.

Dan Lam’s installation in the Beyond Reality exhibit at the McNay Art Museum is located in San Antonio, Texas. Tickets can be bought on McNay’s official website. To stay up to date with Lam, fans can visit her official website.