Join us for an online conversation between artist Kenneth Tam and writer Travis Diehl on the occasion of Tam’s exhibition at ICA LA titled Kenneth Tam: Silent Spikes.

Kenneth Tam works in video, sculpture, and photography, using the male body as a starting point for discussions about performance, physical intimacy, vulnerability, and private ritual. Tam received his BFA from the Cooper Union, New York and his MFA from the University of Southern California. Tam will participate in Open Call, an upcoming exhibition and program series at The Shed, New York. He recently produced The Crossing, his first live(streamed) performance at The Kitchen, New York. He has had solo exhibitions at the Minneapolis Institute of Art; MIT List Center for Visual Arts, Boston, MA; Commonwealth and Council, Los Angeles; Night Gallery, Los Angeles. Tam has participated in group shows at the Hammer Museum, Los Angeles; 47 Canal, New York; Hollybush Gardens, London; and SculptureCenter, Queens. He has participated in residencies including Artist Lab at 18th Street Arts Center, Santa Monica; Lower Manhattan Cultural Council Workspace; The Core Residency Program at The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; and Pioneer Works, Brooklyn. Tam is currently a Lecturer at Princeton University. 

Travis  Diehl is a writer, editor, and freelance critic. He has lived in Los Angeles since 2009.  He  is a regular contributor to  Frieze,  Art-Agenda, Art in America, X-TRA, and  Contemporary Art Review Los Angeles, and has contributed to Artforum,  Aperture,  The Los Angeles Review of Books, The Baffler, e-flux journal,  Art Papers,  Affidavit,  East of Borneo,  WAX,  Objektiv, The Brooklyn Rail,  Kaleidoscope,  CURA,  Mousse, The Guardian, Salon, and  Garage/VICE, among others. He has been a writer in residence at the Main Museum in Los Angeles, Critic in Residence at Otis College of Art and Design, and a visiting artist at the California Institute of the Arts.  He is a recipient of the Creative Capital / Andy Warhol Foundation Arts Writers Grant (2013) and a Rabkin Prize in Visual Arts Journalism (2018).  He is currently Online Editor at  X-TRA.