ART CITIES: Monaco-Tia Thuy Nguyen

Tia-Thuy Nguyen has been practicing painting since 1999. Her artworks usually focus on the observation of her surroundings, and the colorful yet chaotic feelings of a woman who lives in this modern world. Being conscious about the difficulties of the Vietnamese art scene, in 2016, Tia-Thuy Nguyen founded The Factory Contemporary Arts Centre, the first purpose-built space for contemporary art in Vietnam, that aims to be a dynamic destination for art and design display and education, demonstrating the creative criticality of Vietnam today.

By Efi Michalarou
Photo: Almine Rech Gallery

Tia-Thuy Nguyen has focused much of her time on the subject of light. Having specialized in painting techniques during her studies at the Vietnam University of Fine Arts, the artist then took her PhD in Fine Arts in Ukraine. In her solo exhibition “Burdening Dream” with new watercolor paintings and quartz works on canvas, she has closely followed Vietnamese traditions and rituals including crafting mulberry paper, which is a traditional material used in Asian art, one that is light and fragile in its own right, and which needs to be treated with a certain delicacy. By combining this with quartz and glass beads, heavier materials that are attached by hand with meticulous attention to detail — Nguyen creates watercolor paintings studded with stones, which she describes as “evaporating to form sparkling clouds”. Tia-Thuy Nguyen’s  new site-specific installation “Drops of the Sun” (2024), emphasizes the importance of light to her practice. For Tia-Thuy Nguyen, light creates a living state that activates the work when viewers move around her paintings or sculptures. “Drops of the Sun” envelopes the body of the viewer as they walk inside, creating a peaceful sanctuary from the city beyond. She describes her approach as being about the energy of the earth and sky coming together; of solid matter meeting the intangible essence of nature; the heaviness of rock rubbing up against a lightness in the atmosphere: “of freedom”. Balancing four separate parts, the installation combines natural light, a room in which the walls are laden with quartz, a pink skylight, and a window that the artist calls a “reincarnation window”. Together, these elements form a refuge, a dwelling in which to escape from Monaco’s fervent energy, from the masculinity of it all: to rest, to tune out and feel weightless. Quartz disperses light as it passes through, refracting rays in a symphony of sunshine. Tia-Thuy Nguyen has sourced a total of four tones of stone from many different areas in Vietnam: from riverbanks to the mountains to the coast, a different passage of time embedded within the separate pieces of quartz. The color, form and transparency of each were revealed as the residues were scrubbed away and they were cut into shape. Together, their weight transforms into great swathes of color and vivacity, light glinting off the different angles to create a sparkling effervescence. From above, a circular pink skylight bathes the room with natural sunshine, which refracts off the stone and onto the body of the viewer. Shades of rose, lilac, purple, pale yellow and sea green are revealed: this room is its own cloudscape, a glittering chamber illuminated from above. Reinforced by the reincarnation window, the scene as a whole speaks to the swirling cycles of the Samsara: energy never dying, but instead reabsorbed continuously, shifting from one state into another. Also, Tia-Thuy Nguyen has focused much of her time on the subject of light. For the exhibition she has closely followed Vietnamese traditions and rituals including crafting mulberry paper, which is a traditional material used in Asian art, that is light and fragile in its own right, and which needs to be treated with a certain delicacy. By combining this with quartz and glass beads — heavier materials that are attached by hand with meticulous attention to detail, Nguyen creates watercolor paintings studded with stones, which she describes as “evaporating to form sparkling clouds”.

Photo: Tia-Thuy Nguyen, Tension so intense (Căng thẳng mãnh liệt), 2024, Quartz, cullet and watercolor on mulberry paper, 35 x 50 cm, 14 x 19 1/2 in (unframed), 50 x 65 cm, 19 1/2 x 25 1/2 in (framed), © Tia-Thuy Nguyen, Courtesy the artist and Almine Rech Gallery

Info: Almine Rech Gallery, 20 Avenue de la Costa, Monaco, Duration: 10/12/2024-1/3/2025, Days & Hours: Tue-Sat 10:00-19:00, www.alminerech.com/