Nguyễn Thúy-Hằng

Biography

Nguyễn Thúy-Hằng (b. 1978 in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam) is an artist and writer from Vietnam, who combines various art forms in her work. She is known for her unique ability to excel in both literature and visual arts.

 

Her first trilogy, Current Times, Good Sensations, and Reasonable Insanity, written during a two-year adventure in the United States, was published by Knowledge Publisher and Young Publisher, Hanoi, 2006, and became a phenomenon in the country.

 

Her paintings and sculptures reflect the sentiments embedded in her writing, while her short stories create imaginative spaces where her visual arts can take on more cryptic shapes through text. Nguyễn Thúy-Hằng's experiences growing up in post-war Vietnam, as well as her education and practice in the US and Vietnam, inform her work. She diverges from the predominant style of socialist realism in Vietnam and tackles hidden taboos in society. Thúy-Hằng's works have been widely exhibited and collected, both nationally and internationally.

 

Her works have been exhibited and collected widely. Some of the selected exhibitions: Land(e)scape, Galerie BAQ, Paris, France, (2023); Histoire d'un voyage: sand in my ears, adrift of the world, The Factory Contemporary Arts Centre, HCMC, Vietnam, (2017); On the stream, The Third Kunming Art Biennale, Kunming Fine Arts Art Museum, China, (2016); SHE, Sweet Art-Ugly Duck Gallery, London, United Kingdom, (2016); solo exhibition The Warriors, CDEF Funds and Post Vidai Collection, Saigon Domaine, Saigon, Vietnam, (2015); The Walker, British Council, City Fine Arts Museum, HCMC, Vietnam, (2013); The Gang, Viet Art Center, Hanoi, Vietnam, (2008).

Practice

In her stories, Nguyễn Thúy Hằng deconstructs the mental psyche of different groups of people in society, interpretively teasing out their behavioral nuances and breathing them into a novel structure tinted with fantasy and hysteria - a world where our deeply-held secrets and inner turmoil surface and demand that we face them. Her stories remind audiences of the need for introspection, to gaze inside and understand society through our inner lens. Perhaps, there, we can learn to accept the world as it is, and meet ourselves in the process.

Works
Installation shots
Video
Exhibitions
Press