Nguyen is an artist and curator in New York. Born in Vietnam and
raised in the United States, Nguyen holds an MFA degree in Painting
from the University of South Florida. He has exhibited nationally
and internationally in both solo and group exhibitions, including
the 2006 Havana Biennial, Socrates Sculpture Park and Tenri Cultural
Institute, both in New York City, and the upcoming Peekskill Project.
He has received grants from the Foundation for Contemporary Art
and the Puffin Foundation. He has curated and exhibited in numerous
shows, with reviews in publications such as The New York Times,
TONY, The Village Voice, Paper Magazine, New York Arts Magazine,
and others. Additionally, he has spoken at Columbia University
and the Catalyst Foundation while also serving as art and curatorial
advisor to Art for Change, -Scope Art Fair, and Vietnam-New York
Projects.
Messages
From Guantanamo, 2005
Installation; 200 glass and plastic bottles
“These bottles (from Cuba) contain notes, photographs, leaflets, objects, and evidential, SOS variety of materials set adrift “directly” by detainees at Guantanamo Bay, washed ashore on Miami Beach. After four years, many of the remaining 500 inmates held as ‘enemy combatants’ at the Guantanamo naval base still have not been charged with any crime by the US government. This project speaks out against the atrocities being committed 90 miles away.”
Click to enlarge
Women’s Room, Serbian Prison Camp1992 from the series Floor
Plans, 2005
Cut grass installation
“This installation is a life-size architectural floor plan re-created from a real-life account of a survivor who was kept in such a ‘women’s room’ for the purpose of being raped by enemy soldiers. By being able to walk on the lawn, the viewer is made physically aware of the ‘event’ and rendered ‘complicit’ to the trauma.
Click to enlarge
