Chi L. Nguyễn (b. 1992) is a visual artist based in Hanoi, Vietnam. Chi studied Art & Design at Castle College Nottingham then Illustration at Camberwell College of Arts - University of the Arts London. Her works often explore paradoxes, the interrelation of nature - human - spirituality, and familial narratives. She works across drawing, painting, installation, interdisciplinary and research-based projects.
In 2019, Chi participated in ‘Citizen Earth’ - a project that focuses on environmental issues in Vietnam. She investigated the issue of religious waste in public water spaces, and paradoxes in relation to traditional beliefs and modern ways of living. With that, she began exploring reflective materials (mirrors and glass), through learning mirror painting from an artisan in Hanoi Old Quarter. This project also ignited her interdisciplinary approach in which Lakes was not only a mirror-painting installation, but also a collaboration with sound artist Nhung Nguyễn.
During 2021-2022, she brought mirrors to stage installation, expanding the possibilities of reflective materials in relation to space and audiences through the dance-theater The Room 1 at Goethe Institute Hanoi. Later in 2022, Chi furthered her research on traditional religious mirror & glass painting in Southern Vietnam through residency and public talk at Sàn Art, then realized and showcased her mirror diptych Double Seeing in the ‘Ecologies of Water’ residency at LIA Leipzig International Art Program in 2024. Additionally, her drawing series on translucent rice papers Letters to My Father was awarded the Dogma Prize 2023, one of the main contemporary art prizes in Vietnam.
Since then, translucent materials such as rice paper, mirror and glass have recurred in her works due to their oppositional, paradoxical qualities. It is the way they coexist with real space yet impenetrable, and how their double side-ness challenges visual perception - emphasizing the complex relations between self and others, the inner and the outer, human and the more-than-human worlds.
CV
Photo: Nguyễn Đình Hưng