Exhibitions :: Events :: Announcements :: 2023 - 2025
Arise. Shine. Thy Light is Come. (Current)
Produced by Los Ángeles World Airports (LAWA)
Location: Los Ángeles International Airport (LAX), Tom Bradley International Terminal, Mezzanine
Thank you, LAWA, for granting me an enormous canvas and generous support to paint more birrrrds! I am trilling with joy!
This summer, I have the privilege of working on my largest mural to date (7 x 185 feet. Yay and Eek.) My hope is to turn the corridor into an lively, welcoming environment for visitors by introducing birds who call Los Ángeles home. The mural speaks on migration and the things that inspire the movement of our immigrant and refugee neighbors. I’m so honored to be the inaugural artist who will be making work for this newly-renovated space!
Time to seriously tighten up my mural education game. I’m looking forward to working with the warm LAWA team and would like to thank Tim, Sarah, and Stephanie, the stewards of this space, for welcoming me and our feathered friends into this place that is ours. *cheep *cheep*
And an extended thanks to Jennifer and Debbie from Cinnabar, and also Abagail from The Sign Club for your assistance and paint wisdom.
Learn more about the process in this short documentary by Manoa Sky Films.
Also featured in How I Hiked LAX with Chris Reynolds and the LA Times
Momentum (Current)
Presented by The Center for the Study of Race and Ethnicity in America (CSREA)
Location: Brown University, 96 Waterman Street, Providence, RI 02912
Exhibition Dates: September 14, 2023 - August 30, 2024 Opening reception: Thursday, September 14, 2023 4-6pm
The forward movement that comprises of quotidian tasks. The great risks that we take for the monumental breakthroughs. The steady, upward movement that we encounter when we take those small, though impactful, steps of faith. The vitality in a series of choices made to make for a more equitable outcome. As we press forward in heart, in mind, and in hope, we stir a vigor that lends itself to push our heels up and forward.
It is my honor to have been invited to participate in an upcoming exhibit. I had the pleasure of meeting some of the Brown CSREA family at a conference earlier this year, and I am thrilled to be reconnecting with them again.
Read about our show:
Kennedy, Ned. ‘Momentum’ exhibit presents socially-conscious art from Providence area, around world Kimball, Jill. Exhibition at Brown meditates on recent progress, steps backward in the fight for racial equity
Thank you, Ellie, Stéphanie, and Brown’s CSREA Team for the invitation to exhibit!
It Came as a Joyous Daybreak (Current)
Sponsored by The Philip and Muriel Berman Foundation, Los Angeles, CA; in partnership with 18th Street Art Center, Santa Monica, CA; and the MRH Fund for Artists, Southern California;
with additional support from The Vault Warehouse, Long Beach, CA
Project dwelling place: The Vault Warehouse, Long Beach, CA
Project date: November 17, 2023 - indefinitely
There is a momentum that has been rustling wildly in heart, mind, hands, studio while being cocooned inside these city walls.
My heart has been stirring with a need to inch back to my artistic roots (large-scale paintings), and from there, expand. Since the beginning of this year, I’ve been spreading my hands more fully into the realm of public art. These grand open areas of flat space call forth bursts of curiosity for what might just happen if I move in faith into the things that I know not of (similar to how I naturally approach much of my work).
It Came as a Joyous Daybreak is a light projection that serves as a call to solidarity within our communities and neighborhoods. The title of this public offering is captured from Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.’s I Have a Dream speech, wherein he envisions children playing together in freedom.
Calling for fellowship with our neighbors, two historical photographs are superimposed to express sisterhood and harmony. I am interested in the ways that we can bring light into the darkness, both figuratively, and in this case, literally. This project was a response to a stirring curiosity to investigate the ways in which I can bring these histories to life through the medium of light.
<< Historical photographs interwoven—African American Child with Parasol (1950s) by Charles Teenie Harris, photo journalist from Pittsburg, PA; and mother on the day of her first communion (1960s), by unknown photographer in Việt Nam in the 1960s, years before her arrival at a refugee camp in Indiantown Gap, PA.
A deep, expanded thank you to everyone whose support helped materialize this project!
Rancho Los Cerritos: Then & Now (Current)
Location: Rancho Los Cerritos, 4600 Virginia Rd, Long Beach, CA 90807
Exhibition dates: June 25, 2023 - May 27, 2024
Media Day + VIP Opening: Thursday, June 22, 2023
Opening Reception: Sunday, June 25, 2023
Workshop: Saturday, April 6th, 10am – 12pm [Learn more]
I first discovered Rancho Los Cerritos when I attended a birdwatching tour. (I’ve since learned that the correct term is birding. How wonderful that bird is a verb.) Almost a year later, I’ve been invited back to participate in a photography show alongside 4 southern California artists who use photography as their primary medium. Together, we will utilize the photograph to explore the transformation of the ranch site, which was purchased by John Temple in 1843, and examine the lives of the people who served on the ranch who inherited the stewardship of the land.
Together, we will weave the threads of past and present, and examine the patterns we find still occurring in our present day living. You can read more about my piece Plenty here.
From Curator Andrea A. Guerrero:
The exhibition aims to create a visual dialogue between the site's past and present to gain a better understanding of the impact these many changes have had on the people who have lived and worked on these lands then and now …Together, these images examine how the land, structures, labor, technology, and community within the 27,000 acres have changed over time. The exhibition aims to create a visual dialogue between the site's past and present to gain a better understanding of the impact these many changes have had on the people who have lived and worked on these lands then and now.
Thank you, Carlos, for the invitation, and congratulations to Andrea on your curatorial debut!
California Creative Corps (Current)
Funded by California Arts Council and Arts Council for Long Beach Fellowship period: July 2023 - July 2024
I am so grateful to be announcing that I am a recipient of the California Creative Corps Fellowship for 2023-2024 for individual artists. For the next year, I will be partnering with Khmer Girls in Action in developing arts programming for high-school aged girls, as part of the Young Women’s Empowerment Program. With a goal to help revitalize their Cultural Historical Arts Program (CHA), these individual and collaborative projects will be created to empowering our young girls, and providing them with creative expression to reflect upon our family histories, our place in the world, how we engage, and how we might stir positive change in ourselves, our homes, and our communities. We will also be painting a mural together on KGA campus!
Thank you to the individuals and the organizations who were involved in providing this opportunity to disseminate art into our communities who need some extra love. What an honor to have this chance to help sow seeds, with the potential to watch these young women blossom. Looking forward to witnessing the ways in which we will be growing together.
Ventura County: The Place We Call Home (Current)
Location: Museum of Ventura County’s Agriculture Museum, 926 Railroad Avenue, Santa Paula, CA 93060
Exhibition Dates: October 2023 - October 2024
Media Day: Thursday, October 19, 2023
Opening Day: Saturday, October 21, 2023 in conjunction with
In 2011, I inherited a wealth of family photos from Ba Tien, my grandmother’s eldest sister of 12 siblings (link to Family Tree). This inspired me to begin incorporating historical photographs from my family archive into my artwork to help tell humanity’s stories of war, migration, arrival, and healing. From here, I began feeling an immense responsibility to document my family history, and helping to tell the stories of others. With great privilege, I have been invited by diverse groups to make the visual artwork that helps tell these individual and collective histories. This fall, I have been invited to come on board as an artistic advisor for Ventura County: The Place We Call Home, an exhibition that celebrates Ventura County’s 150th anniversary and gives us insight on the stories of Ventura County’s denizens and their relationship to the county as home. For one of the galleries, I will be designing a site-specific, interactive installation by transforming Finch Gallery (Finch. How fitting, right? :) into a living room/resting place wherein guests can relax, share stories, and contemplate upon their personal definition of home. The public is encouraged to contribute their own photographs will be interspersed with life-sized historical photographs from the museum’s archive.
Thank you, Carlos for the invitation to help develop ideas for community engagement as we create a pensive space to share in a deeper understanding of the lives that have called Ventura County home, and for the rests of us to consider the definition and value of what home means to us.
From Carlos Ortega, Chief Curator of the Museum of Ventura County:
This exhibition celebrates the diversity of our communities by featuring various interpretations of Ventura County as home. The exhibition utilizes historical and contemporary photographs to compare, over time, the lives of the people who are connected to Ventura County, and their relationship to the land and to each other. This exhibition is an invitation for guests to discover the long and fascinating history of Ventura County and how it has evolved over time.
Listen to our interview with KCLU
Textures of Remembrance (Current)
Presented by the Diasporic Vietnamese Artists Network in partnership with Oakland Asian Cultural Center Sponsored by California Humanities and California Arts Council Exhibition schedule: January 16, 2022 – March 13, 2022: Kaddatz Galleries, Fergus Falls, MN March 27, 2022 – June 13, 2022: Oakland Asian Cultural Center, Oakland, CA October 23, 2022 – May 22, 2023: The Global Museum, San Francisco, CA January 7, 2024 - March 3, 2024: The Chandler Museum, Chandler, AZ March 17, 2024 – May 12, 2024: San Francisco Public Library, San Francisco, CA June 2, 2024 – October 13, 2024: Museum on Main, Pleasanton, CA March 30, 2025 – July 1, 2025: Haggin Museum, Stockton, CA
For We are Called to Freedom will be on display as part of this traveling group exhibit facilitated by Exhibit Envoy to commemorate April 30, 1975. Through contemporary multimedia art and writings, Textures of Remembrance: Vietnamese Artists and Writers Reflect on the Fall of Saigon will explore the way in which this date impacts many Vietnamese.
From DVAN: 2020 is Year 45 for those of us whose own or whose families’ journeys were sparked by the exodus events of April 30, 1975—a date that marks the Fall of Saigon and the dissolution of South Vietnam. For those of us in the diaspora, this historic event also marks the dawn of our Vietnamese diasporic identity as a people scattered to locations all across the globe (although we acknowledge that some Vietnamese left the motherland also before and after that date, and it is of course not possible to claim just one “birthdate” for all of our diasporic journeys). In general, however, we recognize April 30th as a date that holds commemorative weight for many Vietnamese on various shores. It is a date often remembered poignantly – as loss – especially by those of South Vietnamese descent; as well, it is a date that denotes new beginnings. Like all deaths, it is a date of both ending and rebirth.
Artist Residency continues for Long Beach Chorale & Chamber Orchestra’s
2023-2024 Winter Concert Season (Current)
For Long Beach Chorale & Chamber Orchestra’s 2022-2023 Winter Concert Seasons
View the schedule for their 35th concert season and reserve tickets here, and donate to support these glorious voices.
For a second season with LBCCO, I have the honor of continuing to share in the love at the point where music and visual art intersect. These folks have been a joy to work with!
Since the beginnings, we approached this partnership as a way to build an artist-in-residency program to engage the community in art+music. Are you a creative who is Interested in learning more about how to get involved in this program? Learn more and apply here!
This season, we’ll be rolling out some new programming to offer to the community.
Would you like to attend rehearsal and draw/paint while learning about how the meaning of thee music effects the way that the chorus expresses it through voice? I attended rehearsal for my first time this month (Nov 2024), and it was such a gift to hear Artistic Director Matthew Martinez teach, coach, and inspire all of us with his historical knowledge of the musical pieces, coupled with the way that voice can help express the intention behind the musical works. Starting in January, come join us for rehearsals at 7-9:30pm on Mondays at St. Thomas of Canterbury Episcopal Church in Long Beach. Bring your watersoluable paints and drawing materials, sit in the pews and paint with us. More info to come!
<<< Here is a piece for this season’s first concert, titled: May peace arise upon us
Huế Children’s Shelter adopts a float for GO-BGC in memory of Jenny (Current)
Sponsored by US National Science Foundation
In partnership with Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute (MBARI), University of Washington, Scripps Institute of Oceanography, Princeton University, and Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution
February 2023: Float is assembled and undergoes preliminary pressure testing at University of Washington’s integration facility in Seattle, WA
March 2023: Trinh and Tom decorate the children’s float at the UW’s School of Oceanography
April 2023: Float is air-freighted to Cape Town, South Africa
May 2023: Float deployed on the icebreaker Nathaniel B. Palmer, somewhere between Cape Horn, Chile and the Cape of Good Hope, South Africa (follow her journey) September 24, 2023: Float is deployed in the South Atlantic Ocean 400 kilometers west of the Cape of Good Hope by research vessel Roger Revelle, begins collecting and transmitting ocean physics, chemistry, biology data. January 20, 2023: The Art and Science of Jenny’s Float, lecture with Earth Scientist and Robotics Engineer Tom O’Reilly and Fine Art Professional Trinh Mai for Friends of Huế Foundation’s Children’s Shelter Jenny’s float will continue collecting ocean data for about seven years.
This. Is. So. Very. Super. So. Much. Exciting!!! I can barely handle it.
The Global Ocean Biogeochemistry (GO-BGC) Array is a project funded by the US National Science Foundation to build a global network of chemical and biological sensors that will monitor ocean health. Scientists from partnering institutions will build and deploy 500 robotic ocean-monitoring floats around the globe that will collect data on the chemistry and the biology of the ocean from the surface to a depth of 2,000 meters, with the aim of improving computer models of ocean fisheries and climate, and to monitor and forecast the effects of ocean warming and ocean acidification on sea life.
In honor of our belovèd JennyBoo, I’ll be working with MBARI Engineer Tom O’Reilly to draw on an adopted float that will include a collaborative design with the children residing at the Friends of Huế Foundation’s children’s shelter in Việt Nam. Jenny was a world-traveler who was enamored by the mysteries that science could help us discover, so this is a beautifully fitting way to celebrate her life and memory together with the children whom she so deeply adored, while taking part in this unique project to help us learn more about or changing oceans!
This will be a wonderful opportunity to engage the children in science education. Along with designing the artwork for the float and partaking in Tom’s oceanographic presentations, the children will also have more opportunities to engage as we live-stream while we draw on our float! They’ll also have the ability to track their float and learn more about our oceans from its collected data. I cherish this opportunity to dovetail art and science as we serve our young minds and future scientists!
Thank you, Tom, MBARI, and Friends of Huế for including me in this very unique, necessary, and special project, and to Thank you, Tom, MBARI, and Friends of Huế for including me in this very unique, necessary, and special project, and to UW’s Rick and Greg for being such wonderful hosts!
Joint Artist Talk at Stanford (Forthcoming)
Location: Stanford University
Date: Tuesday, May 21, 2024
My guy and I are so honored to be returning back to Stanford to engage in meaningful conversation with students and faculty. (He tells his stories so much better than I do :)
During this visit, we’ll be discussing institution and equity as it pertains to the immigration and refugee experience.
Thank you, Michelle, for your hospitality.
More information to come.
We the Propagators (Forthcoming)
Sponsored by Council District 7 with support from Arts Council for Long Beach, Long Beach Parks, Recreation and
Marine, and Wrigley Neighborhood Association
Location: Long Beach Recreation Center at Veterans Memorial Park, Long Beach, CA
Start date: June 2024
It is my honor to be one of 7 artists who has been invited to create an outdoor mural as part of 7 for 7, a project that brings public art into parks of District 7.
For this project, I am thinking on the ways in which we behave as pollinators of our environments.
We, the Propagators shines light upon the diversity of our fellow Long Beach denizens, which includes the native flora and fauna who carry their own unique roles as the pollinators of our parks. Like us, they serve as the disseminators of good seed, promoting growth in our shared environments. Whether cultivating wisdom in our children, spreading the kindness that fosters love in our communities, inspiring hope through a generous spirit, or serving as stewards of peace and place, we share in this responsibility as the propagators of the land.
Our project is currently in development. I’ve been learning so much; this experience has been so rich. Thank you everyone who has had a hand in this project!
History as Medium: A conversation with Artist Trinh Mai (Forthcoming)
Published by Asian American Law Journal
Publish date: to be announced
Asian American Law Journal (AALJ) is one of only two law journals in the United States that focuses on Asian American communities. In Summer 2020, AALJ included artwork in her journal for the first time since first published in 1993, and it was an honor to have my portrait of child refugees published in her pages. While we continue sludging through the plight of our refugees who are being detained and deported unlawfully, an urgency has erupted within me to help tell the stories of the families who have been impacted by the injustices within the immigration system. I am happy to announce that AALJ will be publishing a follow-up that centers around these themes.
I am so very grateful to AALJ for offering this space for me to share the childhood memories and the family history that has inspired my history-seeking work, and I hope that this article can help contribute to the scholarship of Vietnamese American refugees who are facing deportation orders in present day. It has been a wonderful process in chronicling these calamitous times in the light of hope.
Our hearts go out to the ones who are caught in these corrupt systems, the ones who are rigorously treading flooding waters to claim their freedom and their home in America. We are with you.
Blessèd be the Peacemakers (Forthcoming)
Location: The Vault Warehouse, Cambodia Town, Long Beach, CA
Dates: Summer 2024
I am so very honored to be developing another outdoor mural to contribute to our community’s thriving art scene.
The Vault Warehouse is nestled in a diverse area in Cambodia Town, wherein many of our Khmer, Hispanic, and Black neighbors’ lives interweave. While sauntering through the neighborhood, one discovers abundant fruit gardens, Baptist churches, and the Spanish murmurings of students walking home from school.
To ring in the new year, I will be working on my first figurative mural (this surprised me when I realize this, as my body of work is figurative-heavy!). Blessèd be the Peacemakers we will be paying homage to the ones who have landed here and continue tilling the soil of the new land, sowing the good seed that bears fruit to nourish our communities, and watering the crop that replenishes us. This mural pays respect to the ones who cultivate peace within themselves, which stirs about in our homes, and bleeds out into our neighborhoods, our cities, the world, promoting the growth that is necessary in building healthy communities.
Thank you Liz and Roarke for the invitation to smooth some paint onto this beautiful building and onto our city walls. Looking forward to creating this work as a peace offering unto our neighbors and the ones who pass through.
Currently in development. More info to come.
Girls in Áo Dài 3 by Nguyên Thanh Binh
Áo Dài Festival VI (Forthcoming)
Presented by Friends of Huế Foundation
Location: San José City Hall, 200 E Santa Clara St, San José, CA 95113
Festival date: Saturday, May 18, 2024
Festival times: Plaza 3-5pm (Free and open to the public); Rotunda 5-8pm (ticketed event)
Gala and art auction: Rotunda 5-8pm
I’m happy to be contributing as an advisor for arts engagement for Áo Dài Festival VI. The title is yet to be determined, but the theme is… you’ve guessed it. Birds. I can’t. Help. It. Y’all.
With Chị JennyBoo’s passing, the team is enlivened to be helping keep this tradition alive. Since its inception, the Áo Dài Festival has been celebrated across nations, stretching forth her wings to share in Vietnamese arts and culture, upholding the áo dài as a symbol of grace, beauty, and liberation, with the hope to usher tradition into the contemporary.
This year, Friends of Huế Foundation invites our communities to Áo Dài Festival VI as we continue celebrating the richness that we find in our arts and tradition, and in bridging cultures. We invite our neighbors on this migratory flight, as we aim to provide the draught for those who soar alongside us, passing on Vietnamese history, while celebrating our shared experiences with the residents of San José and beyond. I’ll be curating an art exhibit to support the children’s shelter.
Take flight with us. More details to come.
Almost Futures: Sovereignty and Refuge at the World’s End (Forthcoming)
By Nguyễn-Võ Thu-Hương
Published by University of California Press
Publish date: June 2024
In 2015, photos of my family were published in Images of American: Vietnamese in Orange County, Orange County having been called home by four generations of our family, at one time or another. While perusing through the book, I came across a treasure map (an invaluable map that lead to the great gift of freedom) that belonged to Tràn Vân Dũng. This fired up in me an urgency to make work that might help in sharing his story—a piece called The Stars Will Tell Us.
Almost a decade later, Chú Dũng’s escape, survival, courage, and leadership will once again be shared with the public. It will be printed as a cover for Nguyễn-Võ Thu-Hương’s upcoming publication as a detail image in which Chú Dũng’s handwritten navigational marks meet on the same surface and my paint/ink marks.
From the Author:
This book is a critique of the idea of mastery and sovereignty in the modern formulation of the human through looking at responses by people who are barred from that status of the human, like those in Vietnam who are dispossessed of their homes for global land speculation, exploited Vietnamese workers in the global assembly line, those subjected to violence in the Khmer Rouge killings and the Land Reform in 1950s North Vietnam, and refugee literature and their memory.
Thank you, Thu Hương for helping to share Chú Dũng’s most inspiring story!
Made of Memory (Forthcoming)
Location: New Museum Los Gatos (NUMU), 106 E Main St, Los Gatos, CA 95030
Exhibition Dates: Oct 25, 2024 – March 16, 2025
Related programming: to be announced
I’m excited to announce that I’ll have some work featured in a group exhibition featuring women artists working in various media. This show will explore concepts of memory as it pertains to generational and cultural experience, immigration and migration. I’ve been focusing on these themes for over a decade now, and am looking forward to learning about more artists who cull from these human experiences.
My Free Birds will be making their debut, having been breeding in the studio since 2019 :)
Thank you, Michèle, for the invitation!
CSREA Keynote Speaker
Presented by the Center for the Study of Race and Ethnicity in America
Location: School of Professional Studies, Brown University, Providence, RI
Date: Friday, May 3, 2024 9:30-11am
I am so honored to have been invited by the Center for the Study of Race and Ethnicity in America (CSREA) at Brown University to speak with their spring 2023 cohort of Artist Practitioner Fellows. I’ll be serving as a one of the keynote speakers for this capstone event, which will be the culmination of a fellowship program that funds the works of artists, writers, and media makers from across the country. It is my privilege to share my perspectives with my fellow creatives as we examine these themes of race and ethnicity in our art. After the remarks, I’ll be in conversation with a literary artist (tba) who will also be serving as a keynote panelist. Very much looking forward to the conversation!
Thank you Stephanie for the invitation.
Peace be to this House
Presented by Housing California
Location: Long Beach Convention Center, 300 E Ocean Blvd, Long Beach, CA 90802
Exhibition Dates: March 6-8, 2024, slated to travel to Sacramento in 2025
I’ve been invited to create artwork for Housing California’s annual conference for 2024. For this project, I’ll be building an participatory installation, inviting guests to consider the characteristics of an ideal home before contributing those words to the immersive structure. The hope is that as this home travels from city to city every year (this also touches on themes of migration, and how we go about adjusting to not only where home is, but also what home is), it will gather more words from our diverse communities. What an exciting way to extend my breath of installation work. I am very excited about this new project, and am so grateful for these unique opportunities!
Thank you, Laurie, for the invitation to contribute, and to James for sharing my work.
Year of the Dragon: Orange County Lantern Festival
Presented by the Pacific Symphony
Location: Renée and Henry Segerstrom Concert Hall, 615 Town Center Drive, Costa Mesa, CA 92626
Festival Date: Saturday, March 2, 2024 11:30-3:30pm
Free and open to the public
It’s that time again! I’m happy to be back installing with Pacific Symphony and our amazing team for year's lantern installation in celebration of the 2024 Lunar New Year of the Dragon. On display will be hundreds of hand-painted lanterns by students from the Orange County Chinese Artists Association, Khmer Girls in Action, and our elders from Long Beach Senior Arts Colony, and our partnering organizations. This year's festival continues the tradition of performances by local troupes and musicians, arts and crafts, and an art exhibit, which will showcase the works students and emerging artists.
Chúc Mừng Năm Mới, Everyone! (Happy Lunar New Year!)
Tickets available soon. More info to come.
Seven Visions x Seven Artists
Sponsored by The Philip and Muriel Berman Foundation, Los Angeles, CA;
in partnership with 18th Street Art Center, Santa Monica, CA; and the MRH Fund for Artists, Southern California; and additional support from The Vault Warehouse, Long Beach, CA
Location: Angels Gate Cultural Center, 3601 S Gaffey St, San Pedro, CA 90731
Exhibition dates: January 20 - February 24, 2024
Opening reception: Saturday, January 20, 2024 2-4:30pm
Closing reception and artist talk: Saturday, February 24, 2024 2-4pm
In August 2023, I proposed to experiment with a medium for which I had no previous experience—light projection. To my utter surprise, I was named one of seven MRH award recipients, granting me the support I needed to tinker and shuffle in the studio to try my best to make this work! (This has helped me immensely in overcoming my intimidation with wires, buttons, cords, and thingymagoos! :)
My project, titled It Came as a Joyous Daybreak, derives from Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.’s I Had a Dream speech. Although the projection will dwell upon the exterior of The Vault Warehouse in Long Beach, the project’s presentation of process and documentation will be displayed alongside the works of my fellow award recipients that were made during our fellowship period.
Thank you, Georgia and the MRH Board for taking a chance on this new exploration of where tech meets history meets art, and to the Arts Council for Long Beach for the nomination!
Hidden Heritages: San José’s Vietnamese Legacy
Presented by San José Museum of Art, Chopsticks Alley, and the City of San José Office of Cultural Affairs
Fellowship period: 2019 - 2024
Saturday, December 7, 2019: Mapping Memories: Mixed media and storytelling workshop with Binh and Trinh Listen to the stories shared by Vietnamese refugee elders during our workshop Saturday, February 22, 2020: Ấp Ủ Identity | Journey | Legacy Exhibition, San José Museum of Art Saturday, October 10, 2020: Preserving Memories: Cyanotype Workshop with Binh and Trinh Thursday, November 19, 2020: Creative Minds: Binh Danh and Trinh Mai Saturday, February 13, 2021: Ca Dao Journey | Poetry | Life: A Poetry Workshop with Anh Bui and Chinh Nguyễn May 16 - January 2024: Hidden Heritages Exhibition, San José City Hall May 16, 2023, 5pm: Road to a Hidden Home performance by Van-Anh Vo and the Blood Moon Orchestra, San José City Hall [RSVP here] in conjunction with opening of Hidden Heritages exhibit Sunday, December 3, 2023: Hidden Heritages: In Word and in Deed—Artist talk with Trinh Mai, San José Museum of Art [Registration highly encouraged]
All related events to Hidden Heritages are free and open to the public and will require registration. During this fellowship period, we will be engaging our community members thought art-making workshops, oral history interviews, and public events.
Hidden Heritages: San José’s Vietnamese Legacy brings Vietnamese artists and community members together to share, amplify, and artistically present stories that reveal the contributions of Vietnamese Americans to San José, one of California’s most diverse cities. I’ll be working with Vietnamese artists, musicians, and poets during a series of community-based, creative learning workshops that will provide opportunities to share personal experiences and memories, and to reflect on the transformational impact Vietnamese Americans have had on San José’s culture and economy, as well as its identity as the capital of Silicon Valley. New artworks inspired by these narratives will culminate in an exhibition at San José City Hall. I am so very much looking forward to this collaborative effort in unearthing the stories of San José’s Vietnamese community.
Thank you to our partnering organizations, and a special thanks to Robin for your perseverance. xo
View my show & tell session that was made to encourage community members to share their stories to contribute to this project.
The Art & Science of Jenny’s Float
In Partnership with Monterrey Bay Aquarium Research Institute (MBARI) and Friends of Huế Foundation’s Children’s Shelter
Date: Saturday, January 20, 2023 - 6pm Pacific Standard Time (PST) | Sunday, January 21, 2024 - 9am Indochina Time (ICT)
Location: Across the ocean: zooming across the ocean: Long Beach, CA; Santa Cruz, CA; Huế, Việt Nam
Last winter, the children of Friends of Huế Foundation’s Children’s Shelter adopted a float—an ocean data-collecting robot. We named the float Jenny Do, in honor of our belovèd Jenny whose love for art, nature, and science inspired us to learn more. That spring, the children created some artwork to be transcribed onto the float by members of University of Washington’s School of Oceanography. Jenny’s dear friend Tom (MBARI’s Earth Scientist and Robotics Engineer, and now my good friend—whom I met at Jenny’s memorial service!) and I were so utterly inspired by their drawings that we decided to take a last-minute, 1-day trip to UW to draw on the float ourselves!
Tom and I are thrilled to have this opportunity to share with the children more about their float, and how it enables us to learn more about our changing oceans. I have been working with Friends of Hue Foundation since 2003, and this will be the first time that I will be seeing the children face to face! Eeee! So grateful!
A HUGE thank you to MBARI, UW, and Friends of Huế Foundation for supporting this project, and to Alynn and Dan for translating my (not-so-good) Vietnamese! What a wonderfully unique way to honor her life in a way that continues to benefit our earth and her inhabitants.
View our lecture, The Art and Science of Jenny’s Float
Hidden Heritages: In Word and in Deed
Presented by San José Museum of Art, Chopsticks Alley, and the City of San José Office of Cultural Affairs
as part of Hidden Heritages: San José’s Vietnamese Legacy
Location: San José Museum of Art, 110 S Market Street, San José, CA 95113 Artist Talk Date: Sunday, December 3, 2023 2pm [Free and open to the public. Registration strongly encouraged.]
Since 2019, I have had the privilege of working with a family of San José arts organizations on programming for our Hidden Heritages: San José’s Vietnamese Legacy project. To ring in the closing of our program, I’ll be doing a talk, followed by a Q&A and inviting guests to contribute their own words to a piece called Still Quiet.
I’ll be speaking about how the immigrant | refugee story, family history, and the documentation of history has driven my art practice and community engagement, with a particular emphasis on works that incorporate the hand-written word. To further expound on this, I’ll be bringing in some objects to share (some material, a few small completed works, and projects that are still in progress).
My heart flutters in a certain way when invited back to offer art as a way to continue growing my Bay Area roots that are intertwined with love for the hometown community.
Thank you to everyone who has helped shaped this program. And a special thanks to Robin Treen for always embracing my desire to engage the community in different ways. It folks like you that grow the love in me for community service. Love y’all.
WPA: Contemporary Interpretations
Location: Oceanside Museum of Art, 704 Pier View Way, Oceanside, CA 92054
Exhibition dates: June 24 - November 5, 2023
Opening Reception: Saturday, June 24, 2023 5-7pm [Register here]
Featuring work by Scott Bruckner, Don Bartletti, Margaret Chiaro, Elizabeth Munzon, and Trinh Mai.
American Paintings from the WPA Era: Contemporary Interpretations presents a selection of works by five contemporary artists whose works carry the weight of hardship beside the hope that propels us forward while gazing toward unknown futures.
As we step gingerly through the pandemic and witness our communities springing back into life, we ruminate on the ways that history has revisited us. A century later, our society continues experiencing similar challenges to those endured throughout the WPA era.
The works presented in this independent exhibition respond visually and thematically to specific historic paintings from the adjacent exhibition, Art for the People, a collection of forty-five WPA-Era paintings from the Dijkstra collection. Bruckner’s wooden sculptures further investigate the relationship between human and machine. Barletti’s photographs honor the ones whose perseverance gazes intently upon potential. Chiaro, Munzon, and Mai carry the legacy of family history and tradition. These works reflect on the labor required, and the sacrifices made, in the search for survival and fulfillment.
While confronting the circumstances that cause us to wade in the deep waters of human suffering, these contemporary interpretations bear witness to the resilience of the human spirit and pronounce the hope that has continued to sustain us for generations.
In Passing: Ann Le & Trinh Mai
Title of exhibition to be determined Location: Fort Worth Contemporary Arts (FWCA), Fort Worth, TX Exhibition dates: August 23 - September 30, 2023 Opens Wednesday, August 30, 2023 with opening reception on Friday, September 1, 2023
FWCA will be presenting a collaborative show in their beautiful sun-drenched space with works by two Vietnamese American women California-based contemporary artists— Ann Lê and myself, curated by Kim Phan Nguyễn that will touch upon concepts that center on liminal spaces, migration, generational memory, and diaspora.
During my time in Fort Worth, I’ll be taking part in artist talks, panel discussions, workshops, studio visits/critiques, among an array of public events to engage with the community in art as change, therapy, proactivism, and storytelling. It is an honor for me to finally share a piece that has been simmering in my heart for years.
Thank you, Kim for the invitation, and to FWCA for your support in this work, for your immense southern hospitality, and for your generosity in time and in spirit. My memories working with you will be forever etched in my heart.
United Cambodian Community Oral History + Narrative Project
Presented by United Cambodian Community, Long Beach, CA Project unveiling celebration and exhibition: August 5, 2023 10am-1pm Project unveiling location: African American Community Center Long Beach, Long Beach, CA
It’s my honor to have been invited to bring a visual arts language during the beginnings of United Cambodian Community’s new Cambodian American Oral History & Narrative Project. During this early stage, I will be listening to the oral histories and viewing photos of 12 Cambodian American community members who reside in Long Beach, the city that holds the largest population of Cambodians outside of Cambodia.
It has been my privilege to absorb these stories as my very own, cradling the hardships in hands, and raising my hands in gratitude for the survivors as they build their lives in communion with one another.
Thank you, Sayon, for this invitation to contribute to this project.
< This piece is called We survived and here we are., inspired by the words of Ms. Lawan during her interview.
Culture Chat: Vietnam
Location: Michelle Obama Neighborhood Library, 5870 Atlantic Ave, Long Beach, CA 90805
Event date: Saturday, May 20, 2023 12pm
From the heart of the organizers, the mission of this multifaceted event is to build bridges with our community by introducing history, culture, food, traditions, art, and music, that celebrates Vietnamese culture in celebration of Asian American Pacific Islander month.
I am delighted to be contributing with an artist talk to discuss my family history and how it has shaped my art practice. Also joining in the discussion will be Diu-Huong Nguyen, Ph.D., assistant professor of history at UC Irvine and scholar of Vietnamese history, and Jennifer Tran, a fellow Vietnamese artist. Our culture will also be highlighted through an array of traditional Vietnamese dance and musical performances, and sampling of Vietnamese foods.
We hope that you will join us for this event.
A breath of gratitude to Guillermo Molina Jr. for the invitation, and to the staff of Michelle Obama Neighborhood Library for organizing this special event that brings the richness of Vietnamese culture to the City of Long Beach!
Things Adrift: Trinh Mai’s Bone of My Bone as Feminist Refuge-Making Craft
Written and presented by Kelsey Chen
As part of the Seventh Annual Berkeley/Stanford Symposium: In-Between: Art and Cultural Practices From Here Location: San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, Phyllis Wattis Theater, Floor 1
Date: Friday, April 28, 2023 10am-5pm
It has been my privilege to have been wandering along side this beautiful soul as we continue on our search for meaning and mending. Kelsey and I met during a workshop that I facilitate for Harvard’s History & Literature department. At that time, she was pursuing her degree in Art History. Four years later, we reconnected on the westside—on Stanford soil for more discussions, activities, and searchings in art practice.
A beautiful soul, empathic writer, intelligent artist, and sensitive spirit, Kelsey’s words pour out upon us like salt water from marrow. I am utterly humbled by the way she peers into our bones, honoring humanity, healing, and our sister Kelly all at once. (Look what you’ve done, Belle. Even after life.)
For this symposium, Kelsey presents this series of works as feminist refuge-making craft, aligning with the continuous discussions that Kelly and I had about art and craft, and the liminal space that refuses a label.
Thank you, Kelsey, for your words and your wisdom, and for keeping her bones alive.
Impermanence: Stories of Rupture and Repair
Presented by the Arts Council for Long Beach Location: Billie Jean King Main Library, 200 W Broadway, Long Beach, CA 90802
Exhibition dates: October 15, 2022 - April 15, 2023 Opening Reception: Saturday, October 15, 2022 3-5pm [Register here]
Closing reception: to be announced Related programming: to be announced
Alongside my fellow 2021-2022 Professional Artist Fellows, I’ve had the pleasure of activating my studio and other creative spaces to engage our communities in artistic activity. Our fellowship period will culminate in a final exhibition that will celebrate the work we’ve created during our fellowship period—in visual art, in performance, and in the written word. Throughout the run of the show, we will be hosting artist talks, film screenings, workshops and readings.
Thank you to Lisa, for leading the charge with such enthusiasm, to the Arts Council for Long Beach for the opportunities to contribute our gifts in service of our communities, and to my fellow fellowship recipients for making the work that brings such richness into our world!
Under Water
Location: Palo Alto Art Center, 250 Hamilton Avenue, Palo Alto, CA 94301
Exhibition dates: January 21, 2023 - April 8, 2023
Members preview: January 27, 2023 5-6pm; 6-8pm full event
For the past few months, I’ve been ruminating on water as both barrier and bridge. So, right on time, I’ve been invited to participate in a group show tilted Under Water, which explores issues around water consumption, pollution, and sea-level rise, but also about how water can act as both a barrier/boundary and as an avenue for connection. Boat Folks has been requested for showing, so after living for years in a private collection, I’m excited to bring her back out to the public.
Also, in regards to under water, have you been introduced to this extraordinary creature?!
Thank you, Amy for the invitation, and to Danny and Carolyn for lending us the work to show!
Fearless
Presented by Long Beach City College in partnership with LBUSD and Long Beach Arts Council
For the Long Beach College Promise Female Leadership Summit
Location: Long Beach City College
Date: Thursday, March 30, 2023 9:30am-1pm
I looking forward to this panel discussion with two of my fellow artists, Pamela K. Johnson and Rejeana V. Black for this inaugural Long Beach Promise Female Leadership Summit. We hope that sharing our work will help empower young women to continue searching for their voices, and find ways to express their gifts in hopes to make lasting impacts in the world and in our communities.
Thank you Lisa and Lionel for the invitation to present to our future leaders.
Orange County Lantern Festival: Year of the Rabbit
Presented by the Pacific Symphony
Location: Renée and Henry Segerstrom Concert Hall, 615 Town Center Drive, Costa Mesa, CA 92626
Festival Date: Saturday, February 18, 2023 11:30-3:30pm
Free and open to the public
I’m happy to be once again working on this year's lantern installation in celebration of the 2023 Lunar New Year of the Rabbit (as celebrated by the Chinese; the Vietnamese celebrate the Year of the Cat). On display will be hundreds of hand-painted lanterns by students from the artists of engAGE, Orange County Chinese Artists Association, and partnering organizations. This year's festival continues the tradition of performances by local troupes and musicians, arts and crafts, and an art exhibit, entitled Wishes for the Future, which will showcase the works students and emerging artists. Register for free tickets.
Chúc Mừng Năm Mới, Everyone! (Happy Lunar New Year!)
Race and the Speculative
Hosted by the Stanford Center for Comparative Studies in Race and Ethnicity (CCSRE)
as part of the Centering Race Consortium (CRC)
Location: Levinthal Hall, Stanford Humanities Center, 424 Santa Teresa Street, Stanford, CA 94305
January 27-28, 2023 Conference dates
Friday, January 27, 2023 12:45pm: Trinh Mai in conversation with Aleesa Pitchamarn Alexander,
Curator of American Art at the Cantor Arts Center
View the full program
I’m honored to have been invited to share my work at this upcoming conference wherein I’ll be sharing some of my recent work, how the process allows me to reimagining encounters with the past, how it helps in the work of repair, and especially in dealing with loss and grief in refugee communities.
Race and the Speculative will be featuring several panels and presentations by artists and scholars, with the aim of bringing a variety of perspectives into a shared conversation about how thinking through race affects our capacities to imagine alternative and more just worlds.
The CRC is a multi-university partnership that also includes the Center for the Study of Race and Ethnicity in America (CSREA) at Brown University, the Center for the Study of Race, Politics and Culture (CSRPC) at the University of Chicago, and the Center for the Study of Race, Indigeneity, and Transnational Migration (RITM) at Yale University.
Thank you, Michelle, Paula, and David, for the invitation to talk through these issues that my art practice strives to make sense of.
Artist Residency for Long Beach Chorale & Chamber Orchestra’s
2022-2023 Winter Concert Season
For Long Beach Chorale & Chamber Orchestra’s 2022-2023 Winter Concert Season
It warms my heart to witness when music+visual art collide! I will be partnering with the Long Beach Chorale & Chamber Orchestra song birds all season in making original work for their winter concerts. Along with serving as visual accompaniment for the performances, the artworks made during this residency will be also be utilized in this season’s marketing materials, and be available in a silent auction, with a portion of the proceeds to support their continued work. I am honored to be named their inaugural Artist-in-Residence! (If you are a creative and are interested in learning more about this opportunity, you can apply here!)
To kick off our partnership, the work for their opening concert Gloria! is prompted by Artistic Director Matthew Martinez’s words on the theme of this winter’s concerts:
Transcendent, joyful, celebratory.
“Glory to God in the highest, and on earth, peace to all.”
These are the words of the Gloria, one of the oldest, most joyful texts in choral literature that is the core of Vivaldi’s popular holiday piece.
2022-2023 Winter Concert Season:
Saturday, June 11, 2023 @ 7pm: Celebrating the Oceans @ Aquarium of the Pacific
Saturday, April 1, 2023 @ 7pm; Sunday, April 2, 2023 @ 4pm: Fauré Requiem @ Grace First Presbyterian Church
Saturday, December 10, 2022 @ 7pm; Sunday, December 11, 2023 @ 4pm: Gloria @ Grace First Presbyterian Church
<<< Here is the image of the work, titled Glory Be
Purchase tickets to witness this gift of song, or donate to support these voices as they continue gracing our community with their birdsong.
Legacy: 25 Years of Art and Community
Location: Oceanside Museum of Art, 704 Pier View Way, Oceanside, CA 92054
Exhibition dates: October 1, 2022 - February 19, 2023 Opening Reception: Saturday, October 29, 2022 6-7pm
This year, Oceanside Museum of Art celebrates her 25th year anniversary with the Legacy exhibition, which displays compelling works from regional artists who have engaged the public in the creation of their works. Cry. Touch. See. Life, a work that I co-created with Photographer J. Grant Brittain and Navy Veteran Christopher Weathers will be on display as part of this group show.
Thank you, OMA, for your support all these years, and helping to create a space where artists can serve our communities so that we might thrive together. So. Much. Love.