Dan Lam Binary For Sale

About this work

Binary is a sculptural work created by Dan Lam in 2023, part of her Color Sculptures series, realized in foam, acrylic, polymer, and resin. Measuring 13½ by 8½ by 7½ inches, the work occupies a mid-scale register that feels both accessible and commanding. The title invokes duality — two states, two forces, two entities in dialogue — and this tension is legible throughout the work's formal construction, in which distinct masses seem to push and pull against one another, held in dynamic equilibrium. Lam's practice thrives in the space between opposites: organic and synthetic, beautiful and grotesque, static and in motion. Binary distills this duality into sculptural form, presenting what appears to be two intertwined bodies engaged in a slow process of merging or separating. The Color Sculptures series showcases Lam's skill in deploying vivid, psychedelic color combinations applied directly into the material — the hues are not simply layered on top but built into the very structure of the work, giving the surface an inner luminosity. The spikes and drips that are characteristic of her practice appear here as both ornamental and threatening, simultaneously beautiful and barbed. Dan Lam is an American sculptor of Vietnamese ancestry based in Dallas, Texas, whose organic, tactile sculptures have captivated a global audience and earned the attention of major galleries and collectors. Using unconventional industrial materials — polyurethane foam, acrylic paint, and epoxy resin — she creates forms that drape, drip, and protrude in ways that seem to defy their material origins. Lam's work occupies a contested emotional register, inviting attraction while provoking mild unease, and it is precisely this charged ambivalence that makes Binary so compelling to live with.