Lives and works in Hanoi, Vietnam.
Linh Phuong Nguyen is one of the most promising visual artists in Vietnam. Her work reflects her interest in femininity, transformation and the ephemeral. Moving away from the earlier work which mainly explores and represents the female identity, and which combines the artist’s youthful and energetic attitude with striking and even shocking visuals at a time it is very risky for a female artist in Vietnam, Linh’s current work is very simple. She obligates herself to be quiet and patient with the material and to be conceptual with the visual of the work. Recently she has drawn to the natural material attempting to engage the viewer in synesthetic experiences of the natural material's multiple meanings. She collects and shares human memory, what remains by seeking the trace of things lost that are embedded in a daily life object or specific space. Her work is often sensual and sexual, humble and exalted.
Linh Phuong Nguyen has joined numerous art exhibitions, events and festivals in Vietnam as well as countries in the Asia such as Japan, Thailand, Myanmar, India, Singapore, China… and countries in Europe such as England, Germany, Italy and the USA.
Besides being a visual artist she programs and organizes art events at Nhasan studio – the first non profit studio of experimental art in Hanoi, perhaps the most prominent art space in Vietnam. In 2010, together with Bill Nguyen, her fellow artist friend, Linh organized IN:ACT – the first international, professional performance festival in Vietnam. She organized Emerging artist program that hosted 6 solo exhibitions of 6 young artists in Hanoi. In 2011 she curated a group show Skylines without flying people of 8 Hanoian artists in London… Her involvement and contribution in the art scene in Vietnam is highly regarded.
Linh Phuong Nguyen archives, writes reviews and critiques of contemporary artists and events in Hanoi for the Fine Art Association, East West magazine, Youth magazine, Beauty magazine and Man magazine…
Solo exhibitions
2010 TREE at Nhasan studio in Hanoi Vietnam
KUNST-FACE and THE MOON PALACE at Malateh art space and
"3147966" the mobile gallery, Chiangmai, Thailand
2009 SALT Solo Exhibition, Galerie Quynh, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam
Group exhibitions
2011 SKYLINES WITHOUT FLYING PEOPLE at Rory Gill Fine Art Gallery, London.
MIS-EN-SCENE at Galerie Quynh, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam
KUNST FACE – at ANYTHING YOU WANT group exhibition, Krause Gallery, New York
2010 SOWING SEEDS at Kaman Art Foundation, Rajasthan, India.
VIETNAM SQUALL – group show at Tokyo Metropolitan Art Space, Tokyo, Japan
IN:ACT international performance art event in Hanoi Vietnam
Vietnamese performance event at 3331 Art Space Tokyo.
MATSUSHIRO CONTEMPORARY ART FESTIVAL:
Art-plus_jp performance art project in Nagano Japan
THE PARTY – video party at Goethe Institute Hanoi, Vietnam
2009 BEYOND PRESSURE – International Performance Art Festival Yangon, Burma
PING PONG-Vietnam and Japan performance art exchanged event at Nhasan studio.
HALF OF THE SKY at Galerie Quynh, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam
THE MOON PALACE in YES! LETS at Spare Room Studio, San Francisco
Talks
2011 AN OVERVIEW OF HANOI CONTEMPORARY ART SCENE at Asia House, London
2010 AN OVERVIEW OF PERFORMANCE ART HISTORY IN VIETNAM at INACT,
international performance art event Hanoi 2010
NHASAN STUDIO AND CONTEMPORARY ART SCENE IN HANOI at 3331
Art Space Tokyo Japan
BREAK THE BOUNDARY with students at The Fine Art University of Vietnam
TREE - Talk at Nhasan studio Hanoi
BREAK THE BOUNDARY with students at Grigg University Hanoi
VIETNAMESE FEMALE ARTISTS at Malateh art space, Chiang Mai, Thailand
2009 PERFORMANCE ART SCENE IN HANOI - Talk at Beyond Pressure, Yangon, Myanmar
SALT - Talk at Galerie Quynh, Ho Chi Minh city, Vietnam
Experience
2010 - 2011 Art assistant for Danh Vo
Sell ice tea at Lenin Park, Hanoi
Take care of children, old people, plants and animals
Director of INACT – the annual international performance art event Hanoi
Art organizer/curator at Nhasan Studio Hanoi
Write critiques and review about contemporary art events and artists
Giving workshop, presentation…
2009 Documentary film editor at DocLab – the independent lab of documentary
film and video art at Goethe Institute of Germany in Hanoi.
Assistant of Ong Keng Seng – director of Art Network Asia in the conference
I AM HERE THE TIME IS NOW in Rotterdam Holland
Curatorial
2011 Skylines without flying people at Rory Gill Fine Art Gallery London
2010 IN:ACT – annual international performance art festival in Hanoi, Vietnam
Emerging artist program at Nhasan Studio, Hanoi Vietnam
Fund received
MONDRIAAN FOUNDATION HOLLAND
EUROPEAN FOUNDATION
JAPAN FOUNDATION
FUKUOKA ASIAN ART MUSEUM
ART NETWORK ASIA (ANA) FOUNDATION
CULTURE DEVELOPMENT AND EXCHANGE FOUNDATION (CDEF) DENMARK
THE ITALIAN EMBASSY IN HANOI VIETNAM
DONG SON TODAY FOUNDATION
2008 Female artist exchange program, Kunming, China
2010 Artist in residency at Malateh Art Space, Chiang Mai, Thailand
Artist in residency at Kaman Art Foundation, Rajasthan, India
2012 Artist in residency at SASG
A Critique of Linh Phuong Nguyen
Yang Eunhee(Independent Curator)
Whenever I walk on the streets in Hanoi or
Ho Chi Minh Cities, I perceive leftovers from the French colonization in the
past, communistic traces since the reign of Ho Chi Minh, and indications of
market economy introduced in 1986, in a whirlpool of bicycles, motorcycles and
tour vehicles. There are a mixture of desires for a future richer life
triggered by cellular phones and vehicles, and nostalgia of a cozy tranquil,
ordinary life. Linh Phuong Nguyen attends to changes in Vietnam through her extended
viewpoints of younger generation.
Its circle of fine arts still adheres to a
yearlong tradition of realistic paintings, with less of institutions which
train modern artists engaging in conceptual works and installations. Foreign
cultural organizations such as Goethe Institute and some art galleries serve as
key exhibition places where experimental artworks unveil themselves. There are
therefore a small number of contemporary young artists in Hanoi. Linh Nguyen
had no experiences in studying contemporary art in a Vietnamese school, and
only learned to create art works while communicating with artists who dropped
in her father’s studio and art space. She went to Italy to study more and
encountered Western artworks over one year during her stay there, which were
not so moving to draw her attention longer. She came back to her country,
creating works inspired by the indigenous environments, the ruins of collapsing
buildings, and salt fields.
Nguyen rediscovers her identity in native
cultures, traces of economic developments and labor fields. She portrays and
extends her sympathy for those that are disappearing. She makes works from her
4-month experiences in a salt field, and takes her inspiration for materials
from rubber, soap and tobacco factories in industrial complexes. One of her
installations, <Traveling Plants>, primarily comprises a trunk and
flowerpots found in the ruins of city redevelopment projects. The work is later
carried to other sites of redevelopment, as if to show her nomadic identity in
a vagabond life. In pursuit of a free life style, Nguyen often makes trips
overseas including Japan and Korea, taking pictures of places or bottling dusts
in her traveling sites. During her stay in Korea, she continued collecting the
dusts, that is the traces of things thrown away down the wheels of life and growth,
in order to make ‘a small monument’ that represents joy, anger, sorrow, and
pleasure.
