Join us for the first lecture in our AGB talk series.

In her Perry Gallery exhibition, “she died a death by a thousand cuts,” Nguyen constructs a haunting meditation on colonialism, cultural appropriation, and the spectral life of objects. Through painting, weaving, wood carving, and ceramics, Nguyen excavates pictorial renderings of women inscribed on Chinoiserie, as well as the troubled archive of L’Art à Hué (1919), a French colonial-era publication that documented the arts and culture scene of the Vietnamese former imperial capital, Hue. Nguyen’s pieces become increasingly dark and peri-human (not quite human, not quite object), existing in an in between state of living and dead, still and moving.

Born and raised in Tkaronto (Toronto), Phuong Nguyen is a visual artist working in representational oil painting and experimental weaving. Nguyen uses these mediums to explore themes of Ornamentalism and the relationship between exoticism and violence by referencing the aesthetics and the history of Chinoiserie and South East Asian/Vietnamese femininity.

Refreshments, as well as an open wine and beer bar, will be available in the Lounge.