Tuan Andrew Nguyen

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TUAN ANDREW NGUYEN

Tuan Andrew Nguyen (b. 1976) was born in Saigon, and currently lives and works in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. Andrew Nguyen is a multimedia artist who explores identity, memory, and history and their complex interrelationship within the context of exile and cultural estrangement. He earned a BFA from the University of California, Irvine, in 1999, and received his MFA from the California Institute of the Arts in 2004. He co-founded Sàn Art, an artist-run exhibition space in Ho Chi Minh City (est. 2007) and is a founding member of the artist collective The Propeller Group (est. 2006). The group appropriates marketing and advertising strategies to investigate power structures and economic systems, and often focuses their work on Vietnam and the rapid rise of capitalism in this formally Communist country.

EDUCATION

2004
Master of Fine Arts, California Institute of the Arts, Valencia, USA

1999
Bachelor of Arts, University of California, Irvine, USA

CURRENT AND UPCOMING

Group exhibition
SOFT POWER, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco, USA
October 26, 2019 – February 17, 2020

Temporal Topography: MAIIAM’s New Acquisitions; from 2010 to Present, curated by Kittima Chareeprasit, Maiiam Contemporary Arts Museum, Chiang Mai, Thailand
March 30, 2019 – March 30, 2020

SOLO EXHIBITIONS

2018
Tuan Andrew Nguyen: Letters from Saigon to Saigon, Asia Society, New York, USA
My Ailing Beliefs Can Cure Your Wretched Desires, 10 Chancery Lane Gallery, Hong Kong
Tuan Andrew Nguyen: The Island, The Mistake Room, Los Angeles, USA

2017
Empty Forest, The Factory Contemporary Arts Centre, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam
The Island, Páramo, Guadalajara, Mexico

2008
Quiet Shiny Words, Gallery Quynh, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam

2004
While Dodging Fake Bullets in the Dark, Voz Alta Projects, San Diego, USA

GROUP EXHIBITIONS

2019
SOFT POWER, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco, USA
Where The Sea Remembers, The Mistake Room, Los Angeles, USA
Temporal Topography: MAIIAM’s New Acquisitions; from 2010 to Present, curated by Kittima Chareeprasit, Maiiam Contemporary Arts Museum, Chiang Mai, Thailand
Journey Beyond the Arrow, curated by Zoe Butt, Sharjah Biennial, United Arab Emirates

2018
Believe, The Museum of Contemporary Art, Toronto, Canada
Detour: Lived Worlds, Art021 contemporary art fair, Shanghai, China
Thailand Biennale, Krabi, Thailand

2017
Whitney Biennial, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, USA
127, Páramo | 127, New York, USA
The Propeller Group, Phoenix Art Museum, Phoenix, USA

2016
The Propeller Group, Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, Chicago, USA
The Living Need Light, The Dead Need Music, James Cohan, New York, USA

2015
Göteborg International Biennial for Contemporary Art, Göteborg, Sweden
All the World’s Futures, 56th Venice Biennale, Venice, Italy
After Utopia, Singapore Art Museum, Singapore
Fairy Tales, Museum of Contemporary Art, Taipei, Taiwan
44th International Film Festival Rotterdam, Rotterdam, Netherlands

2014
Prospect.3: Notes for Now, New Orleans Triennial, New Orleans, USA
SeMA Biennale Mediacity Seoul 2014: Ghosts, Spies, and Grandmothers, Seoul Museum of Art, Seoul, South Korea
Unlearn, Tradition (un) Realized, Arko Art Center, Seoul, South Korea
Residual: Disrupted Choreographies, Carre d’Art, Nimes, France
Transmission, Jim Thompson Art Center, Bangkok, Thailand

2013
In Between, Beit HaGafen – Arab Jewish Culture Center, Haifa, Israel
Home Away, Armory Center for the Arts, Pasadena, USA
ASEAN Media Arts Festival, traveling exhibition, Tokyo, Japan
Unknown Forces, MSGSÜ Tophane-i Amire Culture and Arts Center, Istanbul, Turkey
Cities of Ancient Futures, Changwon Asian Art Festival, Changwon, South Korea
No Country: Contemporary Art for South and Southeast Asia, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, USA; Asia Society Hong Kong Center, Hong Kong
Yebisu International Festival for Art & Alternative Visions: Public Diary, Tokyo, Japan
Metropolitan Museum of Photography, Tokyo, Japan

2012
Impakt Festival 2012: No More Westerns!, Utrecht, Netherlands
7th Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art, Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art, Brisbane, Australia
The Unseen, 4th Guangzhou Triennial, Guangdong Museum of Art, Guangzhou, China
Six Lines of Flight, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco, USA
Made in L.A., Los Angeles Biennial, Hammer Museum, Los Angeles, USA
The Ungovernables, New Museum, New York, USA
Bangkok Experimental Film Festival, Bangkok, Thailand

2011
Video, An Art, A History, Singapore Art Museum, Singapore

2010
Night Festival, National Museum of Singapore, Singapore
Art Paris + Guests, 10 Chancery Lane Gallery, Grand Palais, Paris, France
Projects 93, The Museum of Modern Art, New York, USA
Against Easy Listening, 1A Space, Hong Kong
8th Shanghai Biennale, in collaboration with Superflex, Shanghai Art Museum, Shanghai, China
Kuandu Biennale, in collaboration with Superflex, Kuandu Museum of Fine Arts, Taipei, Taiwan
Porcelain / Mánh Ghép Cuôc Đòi, in collaboration with Superflex, Sàn Art, Ho Chi City Minh, Vietnam
Project 35, Independent Curators International, New York, USA
FAX, Para Site, Hong Kong

2009
Lim Dim, curated by Tran Luong, Stenersenmuseet, Oslo, Norway Palais Project, Vienna, Austria
International Short Film Festival Oberhausen, Oberhausen, Germany
What’s the Big Idea?, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, San Francisco, USA

2008
Guangzhou Triennial, Guangdong Museum of Art, Guangzhou, China
transPOP: Korea Vietnam Remix, Arko Art Center, Seoul, South Korea
2nd Singapore Biennale, Singapore
Gwangju Biennale, Gwangju, South Korea
The Farmers and The Helicopters, Freer / Sackler, Smithsonian Institution, Washington D.C., USA

2007
Requiem for a Wall, Galerie Quynh, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam
The History of a Decade That Has Not Yet Been Named, Lyon Biennial, Lyon, France
Vietnamese International Film Festival, Los Angeles, USA
Depiction Perversion Repulsion Obsession Subversion, International Film Festival Rotterdam, Witte de With, Center for Contemporary Arts, Rotterdam, Netherlands

2006
5th Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art, Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art, Brisbane, Australia
26th Louis Vuitton Hawaii International Film Festival, Honolulu, USA
Imaginary Country, Shoshana Wayne Gallery, Santa Monica, USA
Diaspora, Esplanade Concert Hall, Singapore

2005
Bangkok Democrazy, 4th Bangkok Experimental Film Festival, Bangkok, Thailand
US ASEAN Film Festival, Falls Church, USA
American Film Market, Santa Monica, USA
18th Annual Singapore International Film Festival, Singapore
Short Shorts Film Festival Asia, Tokyo, Japan

2004
Under the Couch Film/Video Festival, Los Angeles, USA
In Place of Place, One Night Gallery, Los Angeles, USA
e-flux video rental project, e-flux, New York, USA
There’s No Place Like Place, One Night Gallery, Tel Aviv, Israel
Supersonic, The Windtunnel, Pasadena, USA
Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film & Video Festival, Director’s Guild of America, Los Angeles, USA

2003
Vietnamese International Film Festival, University of California, Irvine, USA
MINE, Lombard Freid, New York, USA
re: fresh; re-thinking the relationship between hip hop and art, California Institute of the Arts, Valencia, USA

COLLABORATIONS AND OTHER PROJECTS

2007
Co-founder Sàn Art, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam (Board Member, 2009–2016)

2006
Established the artistic collective The Propeller Group

CONFERENCES, LECTURES AND WORKSHOPS

2018
Not Seeing is Believing, Visiting Artist Lectures, University of Oregon School of Art + Design, Oregon, USA

2014
Creative Time Summit, Stockholm, Sweden

2013
MFA Lecture Series, USC Roski School of Fine Arts, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, USA
No Country: Regarding South and Southeast Asia, symposium, co-presented by the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum and Queens Museum, New York, USA

2012
Yebisu International Festival for Art & Alternative Visions: Public Diary, Tokyo, Japan
Metropolitan Museum of Photography, Tokyo, Japan
PUBLIC INTEREST: Projects & Prototypes, LACE and Otis College of Art & Design, Los Angeles, USA
Art Matters grantee panel discussion, Los Angeles, USA

2008
transPOP: Korea Vietnam Remix panelist, Seoul, South Korea

2007
Claire Trevor School of Art, University of California, Irvine, USA
California Institute of the Arts visiting artist, Valencia, USA

2006
White Cube Black Box, guest speaker, Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art, Brisbane, Australia

COLLECTIONS

The Museum of Modern Art, New York, USA
Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, USA
Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, USA
Queensland Art Gallery / Gallery of Modern Art, Brisbane, Australia
Singapore Art Museum, Singapore
Kadist Art Foundation, San Francisco, USA, and Paris, France
The Burger Collection, Hong Kong
Asia Society, New York, USA

BIBLIOGRAPHY

2019
Chiang Mai’s contemporary art museum tells its tale, The Nation, Thailand Portal, April 1, 2019.
Bailey, Stephanie. Sharjah Biennial 14: Leaving the Echo Chamber, OCULA Magazine online, March 15, 2019.

2018
Binlot, Ann. The long, layered narrative of the Pacific Rim, Document Journal, November 9, 2018.
Axworthy, Nicol. Art Exhibit Examines Vietnam’s Treatment Of Animals. VegNews, July 5, 2018.
Tsui, Enid. Vietnamese artist’s Hong Kong exhibition on endangered species gives this meat-loving city something to think about. South China Morning Post, July 02, 2018.
Rose, Frank. Is It an Art Collective or a Vietnamese Ad Agency? Yes and Yes. New York Times, February 23, 2018.
Fiss, Karen. The Propeller Group: We Are Restless, But We Will Not Rest (Even After Death). Art Practical, February 13, 2018.
Ha Thuc, Caroline. Tuan Andrew Nguyen: Animal Tales and the State of War. COBO social, January 26, 2018.
Thao Nguyen, Vuong. Empty Forest: Dissecting the Fraught Relationship Between Man and Animal. January 22, 2018.

2017
Luong, Ruben. The Progressive Director. Art Asia Pacific, May/Jun 2017.
Farago, Jason. A User’s Guide to the Whitney Biennial. The New York Times, March 8, 2017: (https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/08/arts/design/a-users-guide-to-the-whitney-biennial.html?_ r=0)

2013
In Between. Exh. cat. Beit HaGafen – Arab Jewish Culture Center, Haifa, Israel
Viveros-Faune, Christian. The Propeller Group Take on the Art World’s Celebrity Fixation. The Village Voice, September 25, 2013: (http://www.villagevoice.com/2013-09-25/art/no-country-for-poor-men)
Cities of Ancient Futures. Exh. cat. Changwon Asian Art Festival, Changwon, South Korea
Mehta, Diane. The Propeller Group. Bomb Magazine online, February 21, 2013: (http://bomb site.com/issues/1000/articles/7073)
Yebisu International Festival for Art & Alternative Visions: Public Diary. Exh. cat. Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography, Tokyo, Japan

2012
7th Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art (APT7). Exh. cat. Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art, Brisbane, Australia
The Unseen: 4th Guangzhou Triennial. Exh. cat. Guangzhou, China
Knight, Christopher. Art review: The Hammer biennial ‘Made in L.A. 2012’ succeeds. Los Angeles Times, June 8, 2012: (articles.latimes.com/2012/jun/08/entertainment/la-et-hammer-biennial-review-20120609/2)
Made in L.A. 2012. Exh. cat. Hammer Museum, Los Angeles, USA
Salz, Jerry. Big-Government Conservatives. New York, February 24, 2012: (http://nymag.com/ arts/art/reviews/ungovernables-new-museum-saltz)
Nguyen, Mic. For The Propeller Group, Talking about Art Is an Art. Hyphen, March 30, 2012: (http://hyphenmagazine.com/blog/2012/3/30/propeller-group-talking-about-art-art)
Joo, Eugenie. The Ungovernables: The 2012 New Museum Triennial. Exh. cat. New Museum, New York, USA

2011
Video, an Art, a History: 1965–2010. A Selection from the Centre Pompidou and Singapore Art Museum Collections. Exh. cat. Singapore Art Museum, Singapore
Negotiating Home, History and Nation: Two decades of Contemporary Art in Southeast Asia 1911–2011. Exh. cat. Singapore Art Museum, Singapore.

2010
FAX: The Hong Kong Works, Para Site, Hong Kong.
Butt, Zoe. The Pilgrimage of Inspiration – Artists as Engineers in Vietnam: The Propeller Group Interview with Tuan Andrew Nguyen, Phu Nam Thuc Ha, and Matt Lucero. Independent Curators International: Dispatch, May 13, 2010: (http://curatorsintl.org/images/assets/propeller.pdf).
Giao, Vu Thi Quynh. Vietnam the World Tour: The Propeller Group, diacritics, October 9, 2010: (http://diacritics.org/?p=1127).

2008
ArtAsiaPacific Almanac 2008. Vol. 3, New York, USA

2007
Lyon Biennial. Exh.cat. Lyon, France​