THAO NGUYEN PHAN ( Phan Thảo Nguyên)
Lives and works in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam.
Trained as a painter, Phan is a multimedia artist whose practice encompasses video, painting and installation. Drawing from literature, philosophy and daily life, Phan observes ambiguous issues in social conventions and history.
Phan exhibits internationally, with solo and group exhibitions including Pirelli HangarBiccoca (Milan, Italy, 2023); Venice Art Biennial (Venice, Italy, 2022); Tate St Ives, (Cornwall, UK, 2022); Chisenhale gallery (London, 2020); WIELS (Brussels, 2020); Rockbund Art Museum (Shanghai, 2019); Lyon Biennale (Lyon, 2019); Sharjah Biennial (Sharjah Art Foundation, 2019); Dhaka Art Summit (2018); Para Site (Hong Kong, 2018); Factory Contemporary Art Centre (Ho Chi Minh City, 2017); Nha San Collective (Hanoi, 2017); and Bétonsalon (Paris, 2016), among others.
She was shortlisted for the 2019 Hugo Boss Asia Art Award and she was granted the Han Nefkens Foundation-LOOP Barcelona Video Art Production Award 2018, in collaboration with Fundaciò Joan Miró. In addition to her work as a multimedia artist, she is co-founder of the collective Art Labor, which explores cross disciplinary practices and develops art projects that benefit the local community. Thao Nguyen Phan is expanding her “theatrical fields”, including what she calls performance gesture and moving images. Phan is a 2016-2017 Rolex Protégée, mentored by internationally acclaimed, New York-based, performance and video artist, Joan Jonas.
SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2024 Reincarnations of Shadows, Kunsthal Charlottenborg, Copenhagen, Denmark
2023 Reincarnations of Shadows, Pirelli HangarBiccoca, Milan, Italy
Ode to the Margins, Galerie Zink Waldkirchen, Germany
2022 Thao Nguyen Phan, Tate St Ives, Cornwall, UK
2020 Becoming Alluvium, Chisenhale gallery, London
Monsoon Melody, Han Nefkens Art Foundation and WIELS, Contemporary Art Centre, Brussels, Belgium
2019 Becoming Alluvium, Han Nefkens Art Foundation - Loop Barcelona video art award, Fundació Joan Miró, Barcelona, Spain
2018 Poetic Amnesia, Rolex Arts Weekend, Gemäldegalerie, Berlin, Germany
2017 Poetic Amnesia, Curated by Zoe Butt, the Factory Contemporary Art Centre, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam and Nha San Collective, Hanoi, Vietnam
GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2024 The Unfaithful Octopus, ADM Gallery, Singapore and MAIIAM Contemporary Art Museum, Thailand
Sharjah Architecture Triennial 02: The Beauty of Impermanence, Sharjah, UAE
Songs for the Changing Seasons, Klima Biennale, Vienna, Austria
2023 Myth in Motion, Kadist, Paris and San Francisco, France and Sa Sa Art Projects, Phnom Penh, Cambodia
Very Small Feelings, Kiran Nadar Museum of Art and Samdani Art Foundation, New Dehli, India
Stratum Zero, the Outpost, Hanoi, Vietnam
Dhaka Art Summit : Bonna, Dhaka, Bangladesh
2022 The 59th International Art Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia, The Milk of Dreams, Venice, Italy
Manifesta 14, “It matters what worlds world worlds: how to tell stories otherwise”, Prishtina, Kosovo
Fractured Times, The Outpost Art Organisation, Hanoi, Vietnam
Kochi-Muziris Biennale 2022, In our Veins Flow Ink and Fire, Kochi, India
2021 Within / Between / Beneath / Upon, The Factory Contemporary Arts Centre, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam
Carnivalesca, What Painting Might Be, Kunstverein in Hamburg, Germany
2020 Mending the Sky, New Orleans Museum of Art, USA
2019 Hugo Boss Asia Art Award, Rockbund Art Museum, Shanghai, China
Neither Black / Red / Yellow Nor Woman, Times Art Center Berlin
Art Encounters Biennial 2019, Timișoara, Romania
Lyon Biennale 2019, Where Water Comes Together with Other Water, Lyon, France
Where The Sea Remembers, The Mistake Room, Los Angeles, USA
Sharjah Art Biennale 14, “Leaving the Echo Chamber” in “Journey beyond the arrow”, curated by Zoe Butt
2018 Constructing Mythologies, Edouard Malingue gallery, Hongkong
A Beast, a God and a Line, Dhaka Art Summit, Bangladesh, Para Site, Hongkong and Museum of Contemporary Art, Warsaw
Relics, Jendela visual arts space, Esplanade, Singapore
2016 Embedded South(s), online exhibition of moving images, sponsored by San Art and the Prince Claus fund.
Anywhere but Here, Betonsalon, Paris, France
Workshop at Foundation Botin, Santander, Spain
2015 Un-romantic Memories, curated by Kim Jihye, Lotus Gallery, Gyeonggi-do, Korea
Concept Context Contestation, Art and the Collective in South East Asia, travelling exhibition, Goethe Institut, Hanoi, Vietnam
2014 Tầm Tã, curated by Trần Lương, Ha Noi Fine Arts University Museum, Hanoi, Vietnam
Modern Love, Institute of Contemporary Arts Singapore, curated by Bala Starr and Khairuddin Hori, Singapore
Mekong Platform, Milan Image Art and Design fair, curated by Loredana Paracciani, Marina Bay Sands, Singapore
Vietnam Now: Changing Society, Canvas International Art, Amsterdam
NhaSan 15+, NhaSan Studio, Hanoi, Vietnam
2013 Concept Context Contestation, Art and the Collective in South East Asia, Bangkok Culture Centre, Bangkok, Thailand (catalog)
I-CAMP, Muong Ethnology museum, Hoa Binh, Vietnam
Right Fiction, San Art, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam
New Work Show , Sullivan Galleries, School of the Art Institute of Chicago, USA
The Fifth Wall, Sullivan Galleries, School of the Art Institute of Chicago, USA
2012 Ở, Recent Works by Artists of Vietnamese Heritage, Basespace gallery, School of the Art Institute of Chicago, USA
RIAP International Performance Art Festival, Quebec, Canada
Riverscapes in Flux, a travelling exhibition to Vietnam, Thailand, Cambodia, Indonesia and Philippines, organized by the Goethe Institute, Hanoi, Vietnam (catalog)
2011 ‘Open Edit’ Mobile library, collaborated with Truong Cong Tung, San Art and Asia Art Archive, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam
2010 Naptime Noise, L’usine gallery, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam
2009 Intersection Vietnam, new works form North and South, Valentine Willie Fine Art, Singapore and Malaysia (catalog)
2008 Two Coats of Paint, Praxis Space, Lasalle College of the Arts, Singapore
Ket Noi, Singapore Art Museum and Post Museum, Singapore
2007 Young Artist Festival, Hanoi, Vietnam (catalog)
NIPAF International Performance Art Festival, Tokyo, Nagano and Nagoya, Japan (catalog)
AWARDS AND RESIDENCIES
2019 One of the four special mentions of Sharjah Biennale 14 prize, Sharjah, UAE
2018 Han Nefkens Foundation – LOOP Barcelona Video Art Award 2018, in collaboration with the Fundació Joan Miró.
Grand Prize, APB Foundation Signature Art Prize, National Museum of Singapore, organized by Singapore Art Museum, Singapore
2016-2017 Rolex Mentor and Protege in Visual Arts, mentored by Joan Jonas
2017 NTU CCA Residency, NTU Center for Contemporary Art, Singapore
2016 Visual Arts Workshop in Botín Foundation, lead by Joan Jonas, Santander, Spain
2014 CDEF Grant
2013 San Art Laboratory Artist in Residency program, San Art, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam
2012 Incentive Scholarship, School of the Art Institute of Chicago
2011 Incentive Scholarship, School of the Art Institute of Chicago
First place, general category, Union League Civic & Arts foundation, Chicago
2010 Presidential Scholarship, School of the Art Institute of Chicago
EDUCATION
2014 MFA in Painting and Drawing, School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, USA
2009 Bachelor of Fine Arts with First Class honors, Lasalle College of Arts, Singapore
2005-2008 Ho Chi Minh University of Fine Arts, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, Major in Lacquer painting