╳ Trong G. Nguyen

╳ Born in Saigon, 1971, Trong G. Nguyen is a modern-day Renaissance Man— an artist who got his MFA in painting but refuses to let himself be categorised, and whether he’s producing iPhone apps, archival inkjet prints, videos, sculpture cakes, infinity mirrors, applying oil to canvas, or commenting on the non-reality of reality TV (as he did on Bravo’s Work of Art), Nguyen’s left-of-centre work aims to make people stop and think— about life, love, and their relationship to art itself.

╳ Based in New York, Mr Nguyen has exhibited internationally in numerous exhibitions, including recent solo shows at Coleman Burke Gallery (New York), Galerie ZK (Berlin), Galerie Quynh (Ho Chi Minh City) and Fruit & Flower Deli (New York). His 2007 installation, ‘Library’ is simply brilliant. For this piece, Roland Barthes’ last masterpiece ‘La Chambre Claire’, was neatly divided into 48 short chapters— each denoted on the top right corner of a mylar rice packet. Housed within each packet are grains of rice displaying a single word written in ink with chapter titles written on grains covered with gold leaf. As a complete story, the packets are displayed in groupings of three, forming a total of four columns and rows. TCL particularly loves his whimsical use of the library book due reminders printed onto the mylar packet fronts complete with rubber stamped due dates!

╳ Also of interest, is Mr Nguyen's ‘artist-as-company’ project Humanitarians Not Heroes initiated in 2002. Established under the umbrella of a legitimate business, HNH markets one type of product a year intended for wide consumption and distribution. The project occupies traditional and novel retail spaces to sell and disseminate concepts that intersect art, fashion, design, and socio-politics. Examining the valuation of objects whose complex functions follow simple form, HNH's mission operates at the perimeters where art and capitalism converge.

To view Mr Nguyen’s portfolio please follow this link.