Traces of the Times
27 July — 04 Sep 2026
Vin Gallery
35/8 Nguyen Van Dau, Ward 6, Binh Thanh District, HCMC
From the organizer:
Some histories are carried through objects as much as they are through words.
In “Traces of the Times”, familiar objects return in unexpected forms. Richly textured surfaces sit alongside digitally transformed forms, bringing familiar images into view in fresh ways. Through these shifts in material and form, Chau Nguyen invites viewers to look more closely at what lies beneath the surface.
Across “Traces of the Times”, Chau Nguyen draws upon visual traditions that have long shaped cultural and spiritual life across Vietnam and Asia. Buddhist iconography, Đạo Mẫu, and architectural motifs become recurring elements within a painterly language that moves between historical reference and contemporary inquiry.
Rooted in research yet deeply attentive to image-making, Chau’s works reconsider how ideas of identity, gender, and cultural memory are embedded within visual culture. Rich in symbolism and material nuance, the paintings invite sustained looking, allowing relationships between image, surface, and meaning to unfold gradually.
About artist
Chau Nguyen (b. 1994, Hanoi, Vietnam) is a Vietnamese American conceptual artist based in Philadelphia. She navigates the intersection of art, technology, memory, trauma, and Vietnamese histories in her creation of transnational art objects. Nguyen received her BA in Fine Arts and History of Art from Bryn Mawr College and her MFA in Painting from Tyler School of Art and Architecture. Her work has been in group and solo exhibitions at the National Liberty Museum, Delaware Contemporary, Woodmere Art Museum, Pentimenti Gallery, Temple Contemporary, Automat Collective, Studio Montclair, Vincom Center for Contemporary Art (Vietnam), Gallery Steinsland Berliner (Sweden), and others. She has been awarded residencies including Ragdale Foundation (Lake Forest, IL), Millay Arts (Austerlitz, NY), Wassaic Project (Wassaic, NY), Byrdcliffe Artist Residency (Woodstock, NY), and others.
Nguyen has received fellowships, grants, and awards from The Loretta C. Duckworth Scholars Studio at Temple University Libraries, Robert Rauschenberg Foundation, Woodmere Art Museum, Joseph Robert Foundation, Ragdale Foundation, Woodstock Byrdcliffe Guild, Tyler School of Art and Architecture, and others. Her work has been featured on WHYY, FOX 29, Artforum, Artblog, and Hanoi TV. She has held teaching positions at Moore College of Art and Design, Tyler School of Art and Architecture, and Fleisher Art Memorial. She has worked on public programs with institutions and community organizations, including Bryn Mawr College, Tyler School of Art and Architecture, the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Fleisher Art Memorial, NKCDC, VietLead, the William Way LGBT Center, Abington Art Center, Textile Arts Center, among others. Nguyen formerly served as a Board member at the Philadelphia Cultural Fund and is part of the Curatorial Council at the Ragdale Foundation.
Nguyen is in the process of launching Nguyen Arts Fund, a U.S.-based arts organization founded in 2025 to advance a sustainable, paid exhibition model that centers artists’ labor. Alongside this work, she continues to pursue research and public dialogue on the history of Vietnam and its complex relationship to the contemporary art market, exploring how cultural memory, migration, and artistic innovation intersect within global contexts.
