Nguyen Huy An
Nguyen Huy An (b. 1982, Vietnam) graduated from the Department of Arts Education, Vietnam University of Fine Arts in 2018. Working with familiar objects and everyday rituals, studying both the beliefs and habits that surround their use, Huy An perceives that all matter has memory. His sculptures, paintings, drawings and installations explore the impact of time as a cyclical space, drawn to the socio-political relationship between human and non-human worlds as potentially transformative, desiring the present moment to be of greater focus in contemporary life. Huy An is a founding member of Appendix Group (Phục Lục), a collective of performance artists whose works humorously critique the irrationality of human behavior, often anchored in local folk tradition or superstitious belief. Huy An is also an active mentor to many young artists in Hanoi as a member of Nha San Collective.
Nguyen Huy An has participated in various exhibitions and performance art festivals over the last decade, including Nostalgia for the Future, as part of the Hanoi Festival of Creative Design 2024, Hanoi Children’s Palace, Hanoi, Vietnam, 2024; White Noise, Nguyễn Art Foundation, HCMC, Vietnam, 2023–2024; People, Victory, and Life after the War, Nguyễn Art Foundation, HCMC, Vietnam, 2021–2022; Looking for the Divine Beings, Nha San Collective, Hanoi, Vietnam, 2017; SALTWATER: A Theory of Thought Forms, the 14th Istanbul Biennial, Istanbul, Turkey, 2015; Mien Meo Mieng/Contemporary Art from Vietnam, Bildmuseet, Umeå, Sweden, 2015; Residual: Disrupted Choreographies, Carré d’Art – Musée d’Art Contemporain, Nimes, France, 2014; and If The World Changed, the 4th Singapore Biennale, Singapore, 2013.
Studio Visit with Nguyen Huy An
In this 18-minute video interview, Nguyen Huy An goes over the highlights of his artistic journey, from graduating as an Art Pedagogy student to becoming a critically acclaimed practicing artist. Driven by personal curiosity, Huy An discusses his venture into and experimentation with performance and installation art, marking a significant transition in his artistic focus. Initially rooted in expressions of personal narratives and introspection, his practice has evolved towards a broader public discourse encompassing socio-political matters. Although known for its conceptual depth, the simplicity and minimalist tendency of his art stems from the frugality of classical aesthetics often found in Tang poetry and the Zen spirit.
This video is part of a series of interviews by Nguyễn Art Foundation.