THIS VIETNAM-BORN MULTI-DISCIPLINARY ARTIST DRAWS ON A VAST RANGE OF CULTURAL INFLUENCES TO CRAFT EVOCATIVE, LIGHT-REFLECTING WORKS OF ART THAT CAPTURE THE BEAUTIFUL CHAOS OF LIFE AND NATURE, INCLUDING A STUNNING QUARTZ-CLOAKED CENTERPIECE BASED ON DIOR’S MOST ICONIC HANDBAG
BY DAN SALAMONE
A artist Tia-Thuy Nguyen isn’t confined by a single medium or genre. Her goal, she explained, is to “create artworks in mediums spanning installation, painting, drawing, film, and fashion design.” Inspired by growing up in Hanoi, Vietnam (the artist currently resides in Ho Chi Minh City), this fascinating 43-year-old is a multi-disciplinary force. For her, the materials she chooses are also a reflection of the country that shaped her, and she hopes her art will shine a spotlight on the rich cultural heritage of her homeland, helping her serve as a Vietnamese ambassador to the rest of the world.
Nguyen began her artistic journey in paint at 18. After obtaining her undergraduate degree from the Vietnam University of Fine Arts in 2006, she spent several years in Kyiv, Ukraine, achieving her PhD in Fine Arts from the venerable National Academy of Fine Arts and Architecture in 2014. A short two years later, she established The Factory Contemporary Arts Center in Ho Chi Minh City, touted as the first purpose-built space for contemporary art in Vietnam. The following year, she founded her own production company titled Xuong Phim Mau Hong, which roughly translates to “Pink Film Studio.”
Both the Factory Contemporary Arts Center and Xuong Phim Mau Hong were created to do far more than display and advertise her own content. Her greater mission in launching the two organizations was to, as she stated, “Tell extraordinary stories and inspire our audiences and engage our community,” stories that challenge the regimented gender roles which once served to (and often still do) limit female voices across cultures.
Nguyen’s vast canon of work is considerate of Vietnamese traditions, stories, and beliefs, but with an understanding that it is necessary to transcend those traditions to help pave the way for the next chapter in Vietnamese art. Inspired by the “colorful yet chaotic feelings of a woman who lives in this modern world,” the artist crafts pieces that are wild and ethereal, often incorporating vivid, splashy hues, dream-like textures, and elements of sparkle.
In 2019, Forbes Vietnam honored the artist as one of the “Top 50 most influential women in Vietnam,” and that same year, her work was put on display at Château La Coste in Aix-en-Provence, France, the first Vietnamese artist featured by the prestigious 600-acre sculpture park and wine estate. One of her featured works, an oil painting titled “Floating in the Nothingness,” depicted a cloudy sky in rich shades of burgundy and gold. “Feeling cloud-like is to feel free and flexible,” said the artist of her inspiration. “A cloud travels to nowhere but goes everywhere. It is not a conqueror, but it flows above everything else. You cannot fight it; you cannot own it. You cannot touch it and you’ll never know what lies beyond it.”
Most recently, the artist teamed with Dior to reimagine one of the French maison’s most iconic handbags, the Lady, in a cloudy dreamscape of crystal and quartz. The sculpture features a quartz base topped with the celestial glow of softly hued crystals hand-collected from quarries in Vietnam.
Tia-Thuy Nguyen