WSUV Art Exhibition Explores the Connections of Inheritance and Memory

The objects people inherit can carry more than their physical form. A piece of clothing, a familiar object or even memories surrounding food can preserve connections to family, culture and people who are no longer present.

“Assembled Inheritance,” an exhibition featuring Portland-based artists Cuong Lam and Kacy McKinney, explores those connections through ceramics, textiles and the transformation of familiar materials. The exhibition runs through Dec. 17, 2026, with featured pieces displayed in WSUV’s Dengerink Building.

As explained on WSUV’s website, although Lam and McKinney work with different materials, their work comes together through shared themes of memory, loss and inheritance. The artists developed the exhibition through conversations and studio visits, finding connections between their practices while maintaining their individual artistic voices. 

Lam, an interdisciplinary artist who works primarily in ceramics, draws inspiration from his upbringing in a Vietnamese community transplanted to America. His work connects to a cultural inheritance of stories, offerings and food, exploring how memory can be maintained with acts of gathering and giving.

Using a ceramic hand-building process, Lam recreates and reimagines objects from his upbringing through detailed surfaces and layers of added and removed color. His featured piece, “Endless Echo,” combines stoneware, underglaze, steel and wood. 

McKinney approaches memory through clothing and grief. Using recycled cotton seersucker shirts, she creates hand-cut and machine-sewn patchwork panels that when illuminated look like stained glass.

The pieces expand on a process McKinney calls “Mourning Attire,” in which clothing connected to people who have died is reworked into something new as a way of honoring those who have been lost. Her featured piece, “Mourning Attire1,” demonstrates how an ordinary material can take on new meaning through remembrance.

The exhibition also created an opportunity for student involvement. WSUV student Juan Romero apprenticed with Lam during summer 2026, where he was able to get hands-on experience in ceramics as well as professional studio arts practices.