NEWS
17 October - 23 November 2025
Two-person show ‘Tender Recalls / Prospective Futures’ of Zai Nomura & Chi L. Nguyễn - co-curated by Mary Lou David at SUCHSIZE - Osaka, Japan
This exhibition features my original series ‘Letters to My Father’, its site-specific installation and the Part 1 of my on-going painting series ‘As Roots to Trees, as Sea to Streams’.
More Info
• Press Release
• Essay by curator Mary Lou David - ‘Between strata and unsaid words, my ode unfolds’: A curatorial note on Chi L. Nguyễn's practice (Link 1) (Link 2)
26 October 2025
Artist Talk - ‘Conversations on Family: Between the Inherited and the Found’ - Chi L. Nguyễn x Joyce Lam - Osaka, Japan
“This talk, ‘Conversations on Family: Between the Inherited and the Found’, welcomes Chi L. Nguyễn and Joyce Lam to explore the most familiar and universal keyword, "family," unpacking it from individual household narratives and reflections on family history to the very definition of family in contemporary society.
As a Vietnamese artist, Nguyễn creates works that illuminate "inherited memory"—legacies transferred across generations—by drawings, paintings and installations that evoke family memories and records from the colonial era. Meanwhile, Lam, who was born in Hong Kong and is currently based in Kyoto, examines the "definition of family" using family tree structures. Her work delves into the institutional constraints that surround us, including national laws, regional and cultural conventions, and family ideologies.
This dialogue between the two artists will serve as a catalyst for us to reflect on our own family narratives while revealing how society frames "us" and "our families." Through the lens of family, we wish to take you on a journey between that which is historically "Inherited" and that which is "Found" through self-determination, exploring the possibility of new forms of family beyond existing frameworks.”
Text & More Info
SUCHSIZE
July 2025
Featured in Kieu Nga’s article on Vietcetera International
My work ‘Lakes’ was once again featured in Kieu Nga’s article ‘Curator Do Tuong Linh on making space for Vietnamese art on the global stage’ on Vietcetera International.
More Info
• Full Article
11 July 2024
Artist’s Talk at Galerie Archiv Massiv, Spinnerei Leipzig / Germany
The artist talk was part of the group exhibition Seeing Double during the exchange program ‘Ecologies of Water’ at LIA Leipzig International Art Program. In the talk, I shared about my research on Leipzig’s waterscape’s transformation in relation to coal mining and renewable energy, with reflections on public water pollution in Vietnam.
Photography
Marina D. Molina (LIA-Leipzig)
Darija
2-3 March 2024
‘Natural Pigment-Making’ Workshop at Lá Library / Vietnam
A two-day workshop at Lá Library in Ninh Bình / Vietnam where I shared about natural colour making methods and my experiments with several techniques.
Participants were also guided to forage earthen pigments in the garden and the forest ethically, to learn a brief history of natural pigment-making, the basics of natural watercolour making and its applications.
Throughout the workshop, they were invited to reconnect with nature and to find ways to work with nature respectfully. The workshop included participating fees (farmstay & workshop fees).
Photography
Lá Library
2022
Interview about my art & design practices on Vietnam Television Live - VTV2 / Vietnam
In 2020, I was invited on Vietnam Television VTV2 special live program ‘Điều bất kỳ' in which I shared about my dance-theater work The Room 1 as well as my art & design practices since graduation until 2022. The papier-mâché props I created in The Room 1 were also featured in the live program.
2022
Featured on Viet Nam News
In 2022, Viet Nam News shared about my dance-theater work ‘The Room 1’ in which I created mirrors and papier-mâché installation at Goethe Institute Hanoi.
20 May 2022
Public talk coordination - Southern Mirror Paintings at Sàn Art / Vietnam
“As part of Sàn Art Studio’s public program for artist Chi L. Nguyen’s residency, we hosted a talk about mirror paintings in Southern Vietnam, presented by Nguyen Duc Huy – a prominent collector and conservator of over 60 mirror paintings.
During the hour-long presentation, Huy traced and detailed the art form’s origin and historical development, starting out as decorative art on Chinese snuff-boxes, to intricate art pieces adorning the Nguyen palaces’ interior spaces, to its ubiquitous presence on vendor carts and shop fronts in Cho Lon. Aside from decorative purposes, mirror paintings are widely used in various worship settings and religious spaces, most notably, artisans in Cho Lon during the 50s and 60s specialized in paintings of Buddha, domestic guardian gods, and ancestors. Some mirror paintings even contain messages of good fortune and well wishes hidden in clever wordplays. And even though the art form was brought to Vietnam through the immigration and flourishing of Chinese populations, it had adapted, both in form and content, to the cultural needs of its locale.
This presentation was given in conjunction to Chi’s interest in researching mirror painting’s religious fable, figures motifs and application in the daily lives of Southern Vietnamese communities.”
Text & Photography
Sàn Art
April 2021
Featured in Wong Binghao & Đỗ Tường Linh' writing on post (MoMA)
My work ‘Lakes’ was featured in Wong Binghao & Đỗ Tường Linh’ writing on post (MoMA). post (MoMA) is The Museum of Modern Art’s online resource devoted to art and the history of modernism and the contemporary in a global context.
More Info
• ‘Mediating cultures and contexts' [Full Article]
25 March 2021
Public talk coordination - ‘Mirrors of Confinement’ Project at Goethe-Institut Hanoi / Vietnam
During the 2020-2021 COVID pandemic, with support from Goethe-Institut’s Ignite Creativity Grant, I initiated Mirrors of Confinement - a project paying tribute to German choreographer Pina Bausch and responding to the global crisis. The project consists of a dance-theater work The Room 1, a screening of Wim Wenders’s feature-length film Pina, and a virtual talk with dance-artist Nazareth Panadero from Tanztheater Wuppertal.
Photography
Goethe-Institut Hanoi
November 2020
First Prize and Voters’ Choice with Collective Sōnsōn at Vietnam Design Week 2020
In the midst of the 2020 COVID pandemic, I co-founded Collective Sōnsōn (formerly Phường Son Collective) with artist-designer Trần Thảo Miên and Linh Trịnh. As a collective, we entered the national competition Designed by Vietnam - Vietnam Design Week 2020 with a set of home objects titled Stillness Corner and won First Prize & Voters’ Choice.
Stillness Corner and Collective Sōnsōn were created at the intersection of art, design and traditional crafts with the hope to establish a harmonious trinity of nature, human and mindfulness in the modern Vietnamese living space.
During my two years as a co-founder and collective member, Stillness Corner was exhibited at Vietnam Design Week 2020, Vietnam Design Week 2021 and featured on Elle Decoration Vietnam among others. In 2022, I officially parted ways with Collective Sōnsōn.
Photography
Ashui.com
Vietnam Festival of Creativity & Design