Zillman Art Museum (ZAM) announces Summer Exhibition

BANGOR – The Zillman Art Museum - University of Maine, located at 40 Harlow Street in Bangor, ME, opens a new exhibition that will run May 14 - August 22, 2026. ZAM is open Tuesday-Saturday from 10 am - 5 pm and brings modern and contemporary art to the region, presenting approximately 21 original exhibitions each year. Admission to the Zillman Art Museum is free in 2026 thanks to the generosity of Birchbrook. 

THUAN VU: KINTSUGI IN THE NEW WORLD
May 15 - August 22, 2026

Kintsugi in the New World features a selection of colorful paintings and monochromatic drawings by Thuan Vu. Kintsugi is the Japanese practice of mending broken pottery by rejoining the pieces using lacquer and gold. The newly repaired object, proudly displaying its golden scars and deemed more beautiful for having survived, is transformed into a newer version of itself.

Embracing this concept, Vu explores how to find wholeness and beauty in the face of loss and trauma, while also building on the notion of repair and acceptance. Vu explains, “I paint pictures of recovered and repaired brokenness that are ultimately images of hope.”

The paintings Kintsugi: Arrangement no. 1 and no. 2 demonstrate how Vu constructs compositions which combine beautifully detailed renderings of flora with fractured lines and shapes. In other works, like Kintsugi Golden Oval no. 1 and no. 2, some of the realistic flowers are left unfinished and float above the blurred surface while framed in lustrous gold. These choices challenge the eye to see more than traditional still-life painting. Vu asks, “Is something considered valuable only if it is perfect, finished, and cohesive? Can we find beauty in our own process of becoming? Are we less if we are not in a constant state of full bloom?”

Vu has developed this body of work over the course of the last five years and states, “My flower paintings are visual reminders to find the beauty in ourselves, our community and our society, even when things look fractured and broken. We must find gratitude for the gift that is our life.”

Thuan Vu was born in Saigon, Vietnam. As Vietnamese refugees, he and his family were resettled in New Orleans, Louisiana where he grew up. Vu now lives in New Haven, Connecticut and has been a Professor of Art at Southern Connecticut State University for over twenty-five years.

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