Kenny Nguyen Vietnam/USA, b. 1990

Kenny Nguyen (b. 1990, Ben Tre Province, Vietnam) creates expansive, dimensional, mixed-media paintings that center on ideas of cultural identity, displacement and integration. Drawing from his experience working with textiles, in particular, silk, a culturally significant material in Vietnam, Nguyen developed a distinctive technique to produce sensual, three-dimensional works that he describes as “deconstructed paintings.” He begins by tearing swaths of silk fabric into hundreds of strips that he dips in acrylic paint and adheres to raw canvas. Methodically, almost meditatively, he repeats the process—tearing, painting, sanding, sewing, weaving, attaching, layering—until he has a structured but malleable medium, which he shapes into undulating, sculpted forms. Nguyen’s paintings are often affixed to the wall with pushpins, allowing him the flexibility to rehang or adjust the composition as desired. The works can be stretched flat like a traditional canvas or gently draped, folded and creased into animated structures that unfurl along the wall and pool at the floor. Each installation is unique.

 

In some ways, Nguyen’s approach of deconstruction and reconstruction is akin to the experience of growing into his identity as a Vietnamese-American and as an artist. His use of silk, which remains the primary material in his practice, has evolved alongside him. ​Where he once chose it for its splendor and sense of familiarity, through a rigorous process of transformation, it now holds greater meaning: “For me, silk has become the connector tying both cultures together.”