THINH NGUYEN

Thinh Nguyen is a Los Angeles based artist emigrated from Vietnam. He received his BA in Art Education later BFA at California State University Fullerton, and MFA at Claremont Graduate University. Nguyen work is a complex, contemporary look at a few converging issues, investigating the social, cultural and personal while innovatively engaging the public through his process. He has turned his visions into installations, paintings and drawings, performances, photographs, sculptures, sculpted paintings, and videos.

Nguyen has appeared at Museum Of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, San Francisco Museum Of Modern Art, The Pasadena Armory Art Center, Los Angeles and other art venues while wearing a black or brightly colored hood over his entire head. He recently performed in Irrational Exhibits at Track 16, Santa Monica Bergamot Station, Los Angeles. His next solo exhibition will be at Marymount College Art Gallery, Palo Verdes CA

My work examines the relationship between individuality and collectivity. It blurs the distinction between public and private by involving others involuntarily and indirectly. Many of my works reconstruct and transform others’ discards by cutting, tearing, and stripping them apart. I assert my authority by re-authoring and re-contextualizing the materials. I collage the pieces together to create hybrids. This raises questions about what constitutes a unique work of art and a valuable commodity by conflating rubbish and art.

My works embody my perspective and reflect my own acculturated identity while addressing questions of masculinity, femininity, and sexual orientation. The acts of cutting, sewing, and stitching are repetitive and labor-intensive. They become a physical experience that exists somewhere between aesthetics and meditation. They are the result of my constant need to negotiate, connect, and weave together the contested space between cultures, in hopes of finding a thread that connects us all.