» Distancing 1

Tuyen Nguyen’s early works often depict the entity and experience of The Artist in his studio, mirroring his own journey as a young painter unlearning academic training. By making works that are self-reflexive, he tries to understand himself as a subject matter, while objectively reassessing his technique and identity as an emerging artist. Tuyen’s works are not strictly autobiographical: they contain fictional and distorted elements that tap into the possibilities of art and imagination, and echo his interest in seminal painters such as Picasso or Francis Bacon. While his disseminated oil paintings reflect the different states of the Artist-as-Being, his charcoal drawings are specific to his own experience of working behind the curtains of his studio, imagining others observing him at work.

(Edited from text excerpts provided by the A. Farm)