My Nguyen - Curatorial Rationale

I feel Vietnamese people have such a great culture that already includes unique traditions and history. I felt it would be amazing if I spread it by combining both art and Vietnamese culture altogether. It was first challenging but soon, I realized America did give people such a great opportunity especially for someone who is an immigrant like me - I am from Vietnam - because we had many ethnicities in this country. People would bring their own culture and show their talents out, which I believed it called "Culture exchange".

Within two years, I was working on many types of medium while exploring on the Vietnamese culture themes, which includes charcoal, oil paint, acrylic paint, foam, clay, oil pastel, etc. Each medium works in different ways, and the result turns out by its unique looks. I'm mainly focused and found it most difficult when I am working with "shoes customized". To make it happen, besides study in the class, I did many reaches about the history, skills, and how shoes customize work. I also reached out to Vietnamese shoe customizers and asked them about the experience or what they found the most challenging while working on that. Since then, I discovered many amazing things about shoes customized, and I'm now still working on them. The shoes I like most would be "Nhat Binh shoes", which are based on the collar of Vietnamese Traditional dress (Ao Dai) of the last dynasty of Vietnam - The Nguyen.

The more I am working on the artwork, the more I am learning the deeper meaning of my culture. I found out art is the best way to promote the culture because we have 4000-years of history in Vietnamese art. People were using the simplest materials to make the most valuable artwork which still remains until now. I do always try my best to show the souls in each artwork, and make it feel more meaningful. The main skills I always use in my artworks are to outline the works with abstract colors. As an art student, I would like to make art through my feelings, listen to myself and explore it out by making art. It also helps to take my fears, and depression away. In addition, I can also bring out my culture and exchange it to different countries. Then, many people would know there are many beautiful things about Vietnam besides the Vietnamese-Americans before 1975.