Recent Alumna Invited to Showcase at “Art on the Marquee”

Bang Luu, a member of the class of 2014, was recently selected as an artist for the 12th installation of “Art on the Marquee.” Boston Cyberarts and the Massachusetts Convention Center Authority (MCCA) will be presenting nine new works by nine talented Massachusetts residents on their 80-foot-tall, multi-screen LED marquee outside the Boston Convention and Exhibition Center in South Boston. All of the digital works that will be presented were designed specifically for the Marquee. The digital display is visible for a half a mile in multiple directions and is seen by traffic on Summer, D, and Congress Streets, as well as from the surrounding hotels, office buildings and the Seaport World Trade Center.

The process for being selected for the Marquee is extensive. “The guideline for entry was very specific in terms of the usage of colors and pace of the video” says Luu. “I found the toughest aspect of all, was actually making the piece itself. The Marquee is a three dimensional structure, with seven display surfaces which vary in size. I had to be sure that the videos match the surfaces and corresponded well to one another.”

Luu’s artwork that will be featured is titled “Shoals.” It is her reinterpretation of the natural world through the lens of technology. The piece aims to encourage viewers to contemplate their role in the changing physical landscape, thereby promoting environmental awareness. The digital medium incorporates  individual, pixelated colored forms Luu painted and layered, which are perceived differently depending on the viewers location. Luu’s piece investigates the abundant complexities in nature and strives to make the unconscious and intangible known, experienced, and seen.

At Holy Cross, Luu was a studio art major and an art history minor. Luu’s work was featured in “Alter Ego,” the exhibition showcasing the work of senior studio art majors in the Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Gallery at the College. Luu also won first place for her work at the  10th annual College Art Show, which was judged among the best art coming out of Worcester-area colleges and universities in 2014.

“Bang was a student who showed so much passion and determination throughout all her studio art courses. We are all so proud of and excited for her, ”says Cristi Rinklin, associate professor and department chair of visual arts. “She has obviously been working incredibly hard and making tremendous progress with her work, because being selected for the “Art on the Marquee” is very competitive. She's in the company of some very accomplished Boston-based artists.”

In 2015, Luu’s work will be on display at the Granoff Center at Brown University from Feb. 16 to March 6. The exhibit is part of the Religion and Internationalism Project of the Department of Religious Studies and the Cogut Center for the Humanities at Brown University. A selection of her digital paintings will be on display in an exhibit titled, “The Art of Invisibility: Religion and the Secular in Contemporary Art.”

Luu is currently a fifth-year fellow at Trinity College where she  works as a teaching assistant in their fine arts department.

For more information, please visit the “Art on the Marquee” website.

This “Holy Cross in the News” item by Kelly Ethier.