Resilient Textures: Chau Nguyen
Plumeria/ Passing, 2022
Ephemeral sand installation, sand and a custom color palette
55 x 33 in
Colonial Yellow, 2022
Ephemeral floor installation, Sherwin-Williams SW 0030 Colonial Yellow, Sherwin-Williams SS 6676 Butterfield, playground sand, image of an elderly Vietnamese woman in front of French colonial yellow walls, some other house paint
56 x 34 in
As a first-generation Vietnamese immigrant artist, I draw from concepts of translation, memory, cultural symbols, affect theory, materiality, and research on Vietnamese histories to convey frictions at the intersection of cultural identity, colonial fragments, and transnationalism. My interdisciplinary practice employs experimentation and material transformation to combine my personal perspectives and my research on postcolonial transnationalism.
Monet, 2022
MDF panel on wooden frame and lacquer paint
30 x 23 x 1 ¾ in
Sunflowers, 2022
MDF panel on wooden frame and lacquer paint
30 x 25 x 1 ¾ in
Vincent (Glitch), 2022
MDF panel on wooden frame, lacquer paint, gold leaf
37 x 37 x 1 ½ in
My background in painting makes me attuned to the color scheme in my work, both as phenomenology and as a signifier of meaning. I am interested in popular culture, subversive translation, and the global circulation of artworks and images. I aim to make my work legible to multiple audiences (Western and non-Western) and offer an open-ended complexity within its postcolonial narrative.
Bài Học Về Phong Cảnh | Landscape Didactics, 2022
Sand, house paint, gouache
Approx. 3 m x 4 m / 10 x 13 ft
Documentation by Minh Nguyen, D.H. (Tuoitre.vn), and Vu Tu
Commissioned by Vincom Center for Contemporary Art Vietnam (VCCA).
(Detail) Bài Học Về Phong Cảnh | Landscape Didactics, 2022
My work acknowledges oil painting as the point of colonial contact between Vietnam and the French in the 1920s. After the French’s introduction of oil painting to Vietnam, Vietnamese oil painting underwent further changes following the Vietnam War (1955-1975) and the subsequent influx of postwar Western tourism.
The use of oil painting in my work questions the role of oil painting in Vietnam as well as what it means to be a contemporary Vietnamese artist. This work accompanies my research into Vietnamese art and cultural archives. My ethnographic approach goes against the grain of the Western art historical canon to embrace these fragments of archives.
(Detail) A Moment of Respite, 2022
Image Source: Farmer in hammock taking a midday siesta because he was unable to sleep at night during a Vietcong attack; Luong Hoa Village. Part of The Vietnam Collection. Courtesy of University Archives and Special Collections, UMass Boston.
A Moment of Respite, 2022
Sand, organic pigment, pebbles
Approx. 7 ft in diameter
Installation at Byrdcliffe Arts Colony, Woodstock, NY, with support from the Milton and Sally Avery Fellowship for Visual Artists.
Time documentation courtesy of Fion Reilly.
About Chau Nguyen
Chau Nguyen (b. Hanoi, Vietnam) (they/she) is a Vietnamese immigrant artist and educator based in Philadelphia. They navigate the intersection of art, technology, private/ collective memory, Vietnamese histories, and popular culture in their creation of transnational art objects. Nguyen received their BA in Fine Arts and History of Art from Bryn Mawr College and their MFA in Painting from Tyler School of Art and Architecture. Their artist residencies include Marble House Project (upcoming), Millay Arts, Byrdcliffe Artist Residency, Wassaic Project, Dear Artists (DAWA), 77Art Center, and Chautauqua Art Institution. Their work has been in group and solo exhibitions at the National Liberty Museum, Delaware Contemporary, Woodmere Art Museum, Pentimenti Gallery, Commonweal Gallery, Temple Contemporary, The Visionary Projects, HOT•BED Philly, Automat Collective, Monmouth Museum, Studio Montclair, Philadelphia Sketch Club, Vincom Center for Contemporary Art Vietnam, Gallery Steinsland Berliner, among others.
Nguyen has received fellowships, grants, and awards from The Loretta C. Duckworth Scholars Studio at Temple University Libraries, Robert Rauschenberg Foundation, Woodmere Art Museum, Woodstock Byrdcliffe Guild, Tyler School of Art and Architecture, The Alternative Art School, The Charlotte W. Newcombe Foundation, Chautauqua Art Institute, Bryn Mawr College, DIS Copenhagen, and FPT-Arena Multimedia.
Website: https://chauspace.com
Instagram: @chauspace
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Behind the Studios: Chau Nguyen
Join us on Instagram Live for our Behind the Studio event with Chau Nguyen.
DEC 29 | 6:00 - 7:00 PM