Nguyen Ly & Marelyn Larrios

Mareyln Larios is a printmaking and fiber artist living and working in Southern California. She binds stitches, rips, punctures, waxes, pins, and layers in order to create organization within chaotic patterns. Her day-to-day work focuses on teaching and supporting fellow artists, teachers and students, managing the Patrick Merrill Printmaking Studio at the Irvine Fine Arts Center.

Nguyen Ly is a multimedia artist and art educator with expertise in numerous printmaking techniques (including monoprint and drypoint), as well as drawing, sculpture and collage. His prints, drawings, sculpture and other work have been exhibited throughout California and in locales as diverse as Springfield, Missouri, and Guadalajara, Mexico.

Nguyen was born in Saigon and raised in Los Angeles, and is a member of the multicultural printmaking group Lynk Collective. He was also a former member of Los de Abajo Printmaking Collective, and Mono Gráfico Colectivo. As a result, he is especially attuned to the cultural mix that makes his adopted hometown of L.A. so rich – and to the pressures faced by so many first- and second-generation Americans.

“A Portrait of Marelyn” is a collaborative work by Marelyn Larios and Nguyen Ly. The goal for this collaboration was to create an artwork that merges pattern with figure while at the same time combining the two different printmaking techniques and styles of the two artists.