Chau Nguyen Creates Transnational Art Objects at the Intersection of Memory, Trauma, and Vietnamese History

Chau Nguyen (she/they) is a first-generation Vietnamese American conceptual artist born in Hanoi and based in Philadelphia. She navigates the intersection of art, technology, memory, trauma, and Vietnamese histories in her creation of transnational art objects.

Nguyen’s practice is interdisciplinary—spanning painting, tufting, sculpture, and video—and draws from concepts of translation, cultural symbols, postcolonial theory, and the friction between Vietnamese and English as a visual and conceptual language. Oil painting is central to her work: she interrogates its role as the point of colonial contact between Vietnam and France in the 1920s, and what it means to be a contemporary Vietnamese artist working in that medium today.

Chau holds a BA in Fine Arts and Art History from Bryn Mawr College and an MFA in Painting from Tyler School of Art and Architecture. Her work has been exhibited at the Delaware Contemporary, Woodmere Art Museum, Pentimenti Gallery, Vincom Center for Contemporary Art in Vietnam, and Gallery Steinsland Berliner in Sweden. She has received support from the Robert Rauschenberg Foundation and held residencies at Ragdale, Millay Arts, and Byrdcliffe. Her work has been featured on WHYY, Artforum, and Hanoi TV.

Silver Lining commissioned this work from Chau Nguyen as part of the small.artists Global series, supported by GoDaddy & JPMorgan Chase & Co.

Nguyen is currently based in Philadelphia and actively exhibiting new work in 2026.

• Link
• Instagram