ARTIST
PRESS
As seen in Asian Week: May 15, 2010
Local Vietnamese American Artist Wins Asian Heritage Street Celebration Poster ContestBy Vicki Mac
Local artist Trinh Mai's green bonsai - aglow with a golden sun- has been declared the official artwork of the 6th annual Asian Heritage Street Celebration. Her design was one of almost 50 entries for the annual AHSC poster contest, which was held in conjunction with Kerny Street Workshop and NEW PEOPLE.
Mai wins the $500 grand prize and the opportunity to have her artwork shown all over San Francisco on CBS Outdoor MUNI bus side advertisements and Clear Channel bus shelters - plus newspaper advertisements, television commercials, AHSC's San Francisco Unified School District Asian Pacific American Awards, posters, postcards, and t-shirts promoting the fair.
"This contest is truly a great opportunity for any aspiring artist to have their work showcased in such a huge way," said KSW Program Coordinator Lisa Leong.
"I was difficult to pick just one winner with so many great entries, but Trinh Mai has very thoughtfully selected teh bonsai as a Pan Asian symbol, which is what this festival is all about," says Beth Crawford, Marketing Coordinator for NEW PEOPLE. "Plus it's beautiful!"
A frist-generation Vietnamese American brought up in a creative household of designers, musicians and architects, Mai's passion is depicting images of her family's experiences in Vietnam, as refugees fighting for their lives during the war as boat people fleeing their homeland. To better understand the more privileged life she has been given in America, Mai strives to interpret her family's experiences and the "strength they harbor within them to be where they are now...to allow me to be who I am now."
Mai chose a bonsai plant to symbolize Asian heritage because the practice of raising bonsai is celebrated in various parts of China, Japan, Korea, Vietnam, Thailand, Laos, the Philippines, Indonesia, Malaysia and Taiwan.
"I felt that the bonsai tree strongly symbolizes the continual growth and union among the Asian nations," says Mai.
The 6th annual Asian Heritage Street Celebration will be held on Saturday, May 15, 2010 in San Franciso, in front of the Asian Art Museum, leading up to the Little Saigon District, on Larkin Street from Grove to Ellis. The event will take plae from 11am to 6pm and is free and open to the public.
As seen in Pulse Magazine: 1st Annual Artist's Issue, September/October 2009
Trinh Mai: Oil on CanvasTrinh grew up in a large family in
What medium do you
use most often?
I work primarily with oil on canvas. I am completely seduced by the viscosity of the oils, the smell of the spirits, and the sensual quality of buttering on the paint. I also enjoy working in charcoal and ink and connecting through such primitive mediums.
What is your most
treasured piece and why? What is most commercially popular?
For now, my most treasured piece is Building This Bridge. It was originally based upon a dream, but then matured into something much more profound. A painting claims its own life as it develops, and every one of my paintings draws out of me something more than originally intended. Because this piece became a reflection of my husband and me, it may feel more sacred. It’s the first painting I have created of the two of us and came from a time when we were at different spiritual places and were hopeful in reconnecting. I have found painting to be a way of materializing the resolutions we look for in our lives. Through this painting, we came to that sacred common place.
Most people are drawn more to my figurative work. They figurative works seem to answer the viewer’s questions more immediately, since gesture and facial expression are all aspects of the human condition that we are able to read so well. Abstracts take more patience to connect with since their messages aren’t as immediately evident. They also require us to become vulnerable for a time, which may be challenging for many of us.
Do you have any
advice for individuals hoping to succeed in the art industry?
Remember that life is art. Making art shouldn’t be characterized simply by the act of painting a canvas, singing an emotive song, taking a photograph, dancing upon stage, or striking the keys on the piano. All our lessons, all our desires, all our feelings of loss or accomplishment, confusion or love, and our continual understanding of these feelings are all a vital part of the creative process. These experiences transcend the physical acts of creativity. Life is the experience that makes art honest, pure, and emotive, as all art should be.
Henri Matisse said, “I am unable to make any distinction between the feeling I get from life and the way I translate that feeling into painting.” I think in order for us to truly believe in our work, it’s necessary for us to honor our lives by recognizing our value as creative individuals.
What are your
impressions of the local art scene in
I am very grateful to the
As seen in Naples Florida Weekly, December 4-10, 2008
Arts and Entertainment: Florida Weekly Society by Rod King
Six Degrees Exhibitions grand opening celebrates with a solo exhibition by Trinh Mai
As seen in The News-Press, Gulf Coasting South, December 3, 2008
Insightful Artwork: Artist Trinh Mai's "I See" solo art exhibition ends today in Naples.The Six Degrees art gallery is at 1100 Sixth Avenue South, and is open from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.
Mai was born in Harrisburg, Pa., in 1978, three years after her family fled Vietnam during the fall of Saigon.
In 2004, Mai graduated from the School of Art and Design at San Jose State University and also attended the School of Art and Architecture at the University of California Los Angeles.
She has supported the fight against human trafficking in Southeast Asia, donating works to the Friends of Hue Foundation and the Creating Opportunities in Vietnam Foundation.
As seen in Naples Florida Weekly, Arts and Entertainment, November 20-26, 2008
'I See' exhibition opens at Six DegreesSPECIAL TO FLORIDA WEEKLY
Six Degrees Exhibition, a new gallery at Tin City, celebrates its grand opening with "I See", a solo exhibition by Trinh Mai. The public is invited to meet the artist at the reception from 7:30 to 9 p.m. Saturday, November 22.
Ms. Mai describes her work as "intuitive dialogue...a visual description of emotion, narrative, and concept, with every mark responding to the previous mark, whether expressed in color, form, line, space, gesture or movement."
The artist was born in Harrisburg, Pa., in 1978, three years after her family fled Vietnam during the fall of Saigon. In 1979, the family relocated to the San Francisco Bay area, settling in San Jose, California. Ms. Mai graduated from the School of Art and Design at San Jose State University with a bachelor of fine arts degree in 2004. She also attended the School of Art and Architecture at the University of California Los Angeles, where she further explored her passion in painting.
Ms. Mai has been involved in supporting the fight against human trafficking in Southeast Asia, donating works to the Friends of Hue Foundation and the Creating Opportunities in Vietnam Foundation, which she sees as a stepping stone to the direct involvement she hopes to realize in the years to come.
In May 2007, she and her husband moved to Naples, where she paints in her home studio.
As seen in Naples Daily News, Neopolitan, September 4, 2008
During her first visit to Naples in 2002, painter Trinh Mai fell in love with the tranquility of the area and six years later returned to live here. An artist from San Jose, California, Mai now celebrates her second exhibition in Naples, "A Second Chance."
"Naples has taught me that the stillness I was lacking was actually from within", she says, "and being in this environment allowed me to appreciate that."
See Mai talk about her work as well as the work itself by going to Naplesnews.com for a video by Michelle Cassel. [ Please click here to see the video Trinh Mai: A Spiritual Journey Through Art ]
As seen in Naples Daily News, Visual Arts: A Second Chance, June 6, 2008
"Vuot Qua Rao Can (Beyond These Walls)"By Trinh Mai
From the series, "For Those Who Endure"
Oil, latex and joss paper on canvas
48 by 60 inches
From the press release: "Fresh new work depicting the artist Trinh Mai's uest to connect with the subconscious and the spiritual, to make the intangible tangible and the unseen visible. A diverse series of paintings ebracing a universal sense of spiritual and emotional freedom."
From the artist's statment on "Vuot Qua Rao Can (Beyond These Walls)": "A young girl peers out from behind the wall. She knows there is much awaiting her.
"This painting is about creating our own traditions, but at the same time, remembering our history and those places form where we have come. The red symbols abstractly spell out Vuot Qua Rao Can in a traditional Chinese stamp motif. These stamps represent the transition from one place to the next - as would stamps on postcards, letters or passports. They say, "I am here."
As seen in Moving With Style Magazine: Leaders of Naples, Spring 2008 Issue
Leaders of Naples 2008: Trinh Mai - Speaking to Others
by Daniel Casciato
As an artist, Trinh Mai's work is her voice. A voice which she hopes will speak to others.
"My paintings describe my story," Mai says. "Although they derive from personal narratives, they also embrace universal themes. Some of the work is hopeful, while some describe trying events in my life. Through painting, I share my story with the viewer. The details may vary, but we have all been through similar experiences, and we all are strengthened by them."
"I remember listening to the summer's orchestra of millions of insects, having fish swarm at my feet in the Gulf, and driving through a storm immediately into clear skies of sunlight," she recalls. "I have always been inspired by nature and felt so completely balanced here."
There is no typical day for an artist like Mai. For her, art is a lifestyle.
"Painting isn't necessarily applying paint onto canvas," explains Mai, who uses the lanai at her home as her studio space. "When I'm at the beach during sunset, processing my day, my experiences, and my life, that's part of the painting process. I internalize everything from the mundane to the extraordinary and incorporate that into my art in some way."
For Mai, her passion in painting is a spiritual journey. "My instructors exposed me to so many wonderful artists. They always encouraged me to study varied work." Mai's body of work has been inspired by an array of artists, from neoclassical painter Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres to abstractionist Patrick Surgalski, from figurative painter hung Liu to landscape painter Kelly Clark.
Intrigued by the intuitive nature and subconscious effort involved in abstraction and the seductive textural quality of oils, Mai's work consists primarily of oil on canvas. Working on large scale canvas allows her to be part of the environment she is creating, moving back and forth between the abstract and the figurative, and striving to find the balance of the two.
"Through creating, I am revealing my self and making sense of my world," she says. "Art is absolutely necessary in my life. I'm so thankful that I'm able to do what I love. It's rare for a first generation Vietnamese woman to pursue a life in art. Most are encouraged to conform to the more conventional professions, but my parents and family are so supportive of my passion. I am blessed to have this opportunity to share my work with others. Everyone is born with a gift, and it's important to share it."
Mai's work is currently appearing at: Room Interior Philosophy, SONA Gallery, Kilns N' Clay Pottery Studio, Naples Information Center, and Miromar Lakes Beach and Golf Clubhouse.
As seen in San Jose Mercury News, The Guide, Artist Reflects Heritage in Work,
December 2-8, 2004
EXHIBIT PAINTS STORIES OF VIETNAMESE IN U.S.DISPLAY AT KING LIBRARY DEPICTS EXPERIENCES IN AMERICA, VIETNAM
by Hong Dao Nguyen
Trinh Mai's oil painting, "Remember," of a mother holding her son, is crafted in shades of black and brown, but Mai said the work is meant to express hope within tragedy. She describes the story on the canvas as a mother giving her boy the opportunity to leave home for something better while she stays back. In it, the mother gazes at her son while he looks unabashedly forward.
The piece was in part inspired by the journey of Mai's parents from war-torn Vietnam in 1975, and friends' personal stories of leaving that country for a better life. It's also a universal story about sacrifice, said Mai, 26, who lives in the Santa Teresa area.
Mai's painting is among dozens of pieces on display at the Martin Luther King Jr. Library as part of the "Traces of the Hundred Viets" exhibit. It is hosted by three Vietnamese-based non-profit organizations in a union called "Humanity Through Arts," through which the artwork will be auctioned to the public Saturday for charity.
"Most of us are immigrants, most of us are minorities, and most of us have so much passion we want to lay out on the canvas," said Jenny Do, a curator and artist who submitted her won painting, "Elements," to the show. The work of 20 mainly Vietnamese-American artists reflects their experiences both here and in Vietnam.
"Traces of the Hundred Viets" alludes to the myth that Vietnamese people were born from a union of a dragon and a fairy who produced 100 offspring. They dispersed, multiplied and created the Vietnamese people. Artists featured in the show mirror the children in this myth - like them, they have unique qualities. Although varying in age, background and stature in the art community, they share a common heritage.
In small quarters in a section of the library, panels displaying dozens of the pieces, including paintings, sculptures and photographs. One corner holds Hai-Ho Tran's enlarged photographs of Hmong people, an ethnic minority in Southeast Asia. His lens captured a baby obliviously settled in the basket of his mother's bike, and another of a 6-year-old Hmong girl selling handicrafts on a sidewalk. Tran, who grew up in Vietnam, said he wanted to express the beauty of his subjects' culture in the photos.
Nearby is Kai Hoang's fiery mixed-media painting, "Deliverance," that centers around themes of death and cremation. Hoang, 56, is a Franklin McKinley School District liason who has shown his work in Vietnam, Oakland and the San Jose Museum of Art. He said the piece, in part, evokes memories of his father's and brothers' deaths, but at his age, he is thinking about the afterlife.
Besides highlighting the artists' lives and work, the story behind the exhibit is one that organizers said is an accomplishment in itself. A network of people in the Vietnamese based non-profit community have batted around the idea of hosting an event for years. Three non-profits - Creating Opportunities in Vietnam, or CoVN, Friends of Hue Foundation, and the Vietnamese American Professional Alliance - have joined to create the venture.
CoVN helps disadvantaged women in Vietnam through entrepreneurship. The Professionals Alliance is a network of Vietnamese-Americans who encourage local professional and personal development, and Friends of Hue helps the people in the Thua Thien Hue province in Vietnam who are victims of natural disasters. It has also started an American-run orphanage in Vietnam. Organizers from the groups were looking for a way to integrate artists into the project and help promote their work.
Bryan Cong Do, an exhibit founder, said one of the goals was to push the largely Vietnamese artwork into the mainstream.
"We want to share our art with the world," said Do, who has volunteered for the Professionals Alliance and Friends of Hue. "For non-Vietnamese people, when you say Vietnam, I think most of them will say the Vietnam War and that's all they can think of - and that's not fair."
For Mai, 26, her Vietnamese-American experience has been different from some of the older Vietnamese artists who grew up in Vietnam during the war. Mai thinks about what her parents went through and the sacrifices they've made, and it is now showing in her work, including, "Remember."
"I can't ever fully understand, but I can interpret," she says.
Tubes of paint used by artist Trinh Mai have been incorporated as a detail in her triptych, "We Fight With Our Fists the Truth."
Painter, Trinh Mai, who lives in the Santa Teresa area and is an art student at San Jose State University, discusses her triptych, "We Fight With Our Fists The Truth," with Robert Chiarito, associate professor of art at San Jose State.
As seen in Spartan Daily, September 29, 2004
Stroke by Stroke by Cara Bowyer
Trinh Mai, a senior fine arts major, works on a painting Tuesday for her advanced painting class. Mai said this painting represents all of the complexities that make up who she is today.
Copyright Trinh Mai. All rights reserved.
