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
Visiting Mellon Practitioner Fellowship (Current)
At the Center for the Study of Race and Ethnicity in America (CSREA) at Brown University, Providence, RI
for the Centering Race in the Arts and Humanities Consortium, funded by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation
Fellowship period: Fall 2024
It is my great joy to be continuing to build my relationship with the CSREA family at Brown. It is my privilege to have been selected as one of their Artistic Practitioners Fellows for 2024. During this fellowship, I will be expanding my project It Came as a Joyous Daybreak as I develop more light projections throughout the City of Long Beach, the state of California (and hopefully, the country, or even world, God willing) wherein I continue my collaboration with the late Charles Teenie Harris. This growing project will include more composited projections that comprise photos of my family photos and photos by Harris. I will also be joining my fellow artists in critiques and discussions as we support one another in each one’s creative endeavors.
Thank you to the CSREA Family for including me in this small group, and for your support and encouragement throughout these past years. I can’t wait to see you all again. I have had so many wonderful discussions with you, and am looking forward to the ones to come.
Made of Memory (Current)
Location: New Museum Los Gatos (NUMU), 106 E Main St, Los Gatos, CA 95030
Exhibition Dates: Oct 25, 2024 – March 16, 2025
Members Tour: Friday, October 25 5-6pm
Opening reception: Friday, October 25 6-8pm
Artist Panel: March 2025 (date 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.
Two very exciting things about this show. After a decade since its birth, Begins with Tea will be making her debut in the Bay Area, and my Free Birds will be making their debut as well, having been breeding in the studio since 2019 :) Thank you, Michèle, for the invitation!
My Intimate Partner (Current)
Location: Oceanside Museum of Art, 704 Pier View Way, Oceanside, CA 92054
Exhibition dates: October 5 - March 16
Opening Reception: Saturday, October 5, 2024 5-7pm [Register here]
I’m humbled to be participating in this exhibition that speaks on the sensitive issue of violence that within intimate relationships. In partnership with the County of San Diego and the Women’s Resource Center, who provides encouragement and support for survivors of domestic violence through advocacy, the artists in this show stand with these survivors.
My work, Broken, Tattered, Healing, Whole, examines the passage of healing and generational healing, and inheritance and considers time as a mending agent.
My Intimate Partner is proud to be part of the official calendar of World Design Capital (WDC) San Diego Tijuana 2024, an initiative that reimagines, celebrates, transforms, and enhances this region of our country through the lens of design.
Thank you, Smadar, for the invitation to contribute to this cause. I hadn’t realized how many lives I’ve known who have been affected by domestic violence. Somehow, the memories had grown dormant, and resurfaced during the art practice. Art heals, and helps us become a remembering people.
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 - January 2025
Media Day: Thursday, October 19, 2023
Opening Day: Saturday, October 21, 2023
In 2011, I inherited a wealth of family photos from Ba Tien, my grandmother’s eldest sister of 12 siblings. 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 Grace First Presbyterian Church in Long Beach. Bring your water-soluable paints or drawing materials, sit in the pews, and make art with us. More info to come!
<<< Here is a piece for this season’s first concert, titled: May peace arise upon us
Hidden Heritages: San José’s Vietnamese Legacy (Current)
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 - September 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 in conjunction with opening of Hidden Heritages Sunday, December 3, 2023: Hidden Heritages: In Word and in Deed—Artist talk with Trinh Mai, SJMA
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.
Spiritual Art Grant (Current)
Presented by the Marianne Oberg Foundation for Spiritual Art (MOFSA), Charlotte, North Carolina
Grant period: 2024
I’m happy to announce that I have been named one of five recipients of the Marianne Oberg Foundation’s Spiritual Art Grant, whose mission is to inspire, encourage and support the creation of spiritual art, which deepens us, fosters healing and wholeness, and catalyzes growth and transformation.
For this next year, I’ll be revisiting a series of works about forgiveness, and the grace that it allows us, also further exploring light as medium.
Thank you, Bob, Marianne, and the MOFSA team for your support in this work. What a meaningful way to continue Marianne’s legacy.
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: Autumn 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.
Art as Aperture into History (Forthcoming)
For the Cambodian American Studies Model Curriculum (CASMC) Conference Presented by the Santa Clara County and Orange County Offices of Education Presentation location: San José, CA (location to be announced) Presentation date: Friday, January 31, 2025 and Saturday, February 1, 2025
I am so grateful to once again to partner with the have an opportunity to present my work at the Cambodian American Studies Conference wherein Cambodian American scholars, creatives, and community organizations will present to attending K-12 educators and administrators to share ways that we can teach and administrators to support the Cambodian American Studies Model Curriculum via an educational and immersive conference experience.
It warms my heart to return to my belovèd San José to share in this work—this city wherein my husband and I met, and through him, was introduced to the history of Cambodian America. Thank you to everyone who works tirelessly to carry on this history. You are appreciated and loved!
New art exhibit brings visibility to intimate partner violence
Interview on KPBS Midday Edition, San Diego, CA
Air date: October 8, 2024
I had the privilege to sit down with fellow artist Lisa Bryson and advocate Jessica Yaffa to speak with Andrew Bowen about our work in bringing awareness to domestic violence. We had the opportunity to highlight our show, My Intimate Partner, currently on view at Oceanside Museum of Art. The conversation circled around personal testimony, inspiration, prevention, healing, and the courage that lies within us. To the women I’ve known who have survived abuse, and the ones who are trying to flee from it, I love you.
Doubt Not.
Location: Lydia House, Long Beach Rescue Mission, 1335 Pacific Ave, Long Beach, CA 90813 Groundbreaking: October 2025
For the past few years, I have had the humbling opportunity to serve those who have found sanctuary at the Long Beach Rescue Mission.
This autumn, I will partnering with the Mission for a project called Doubt Not. that petitions for a robust faith to fill our hearts, the hearts of the women and children who have found security and support at Lydia House, and the ones who have been called to serve them. This work calls for the bold, empowering, and physical act of faith that will strengthen our bones as we break the barriers that do not serve us.
If ye have faith, and doubt not, ye shall not only do this which is done to the fig tree, but also if ye shall say unto this mountain, Be thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea; it shall be done. – Matthew 21:21
Many many thanks to Jeff for saying yes, to Mason for the stone shop tutorials, and to the Long Beach Rescue Mission Family for your generous hospitality and for joining me in these impromptu curiosities.
Art Practice as a Language for Liberation
For the Vietnamese American Experiences Conference Presented by the Orange County Department of Education Presentation location: Santa Clara County Office of Education, 1290 Ridder Park Drive, San José, CA 95131 Presentation date: Friday, September 27-28, 2024
I am so grateful have this opportunity to speak at the Vietnamese American Experiences Conference wherein Vietnamese American scholars, creatives, and community organizations will present to attending K-12 educators and administrators. Our goal is to better prepare educators to teach and administrators to support the Vietnamese American Experience Model Curriculum (VAEMC) via an educational and immersive conference experience. The VAEMC centers around experiences that may cover topics such as the fall of Sài Gòn, lived experiences of "boat people", resettlement and rebuilding, cultural practices and preservation, and the diaspora among others. For this conference, I’ll be giving a lecture, followed by a workshop, and will have Still Quiet on display as an offering of arts engagement.
It is a great honor to share these stories in Bay Area where my parents built a life for themselves and raised my younger brother and me. Thank you, Michelle, for sharing my work, and for Cindy for the invitation. It is a pleasure to be serving our communities with you!
Momentum
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!
California Creative Corps Fellowship
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.
Art for Life
For CampConnect for Pacific Links Foundation [view catalogue]
Location: Đà Nẵng, Việt Nam
Lecture and workshop: Saturday, July 6 8-10:15am; Sunday, July 7 8-10:15am (Việt Nam time zone)
In 2004, my dear friend Jenny (Rest in eternal peace, dear Sister) curated my very first public show called Humanity Through Art, which benefited the children in Việt Nam. This sowed a lasting seed in my heart, as it taught me that art could heal me, and potentially benefit others should I choose to approach art as service. While working on our show, she introduced me to the Pacific Links Foundation, an organization dedicated to empowering women and youth, with an emphasis on investing in youth to prevent trafficking.
Twenty years later, I have the privilege to work with Pacific Links to offer arts programming to the youth whom they serve. I will be joining them this summer as I present art as a language for which they can find hope, joy, and healing for the disadvantaged youth from Vietnam's 12 Mekong Delta and Central provinces.
I will be sharing my process and works centered around liberation with birds as symbolism. Following the talk, we will be together drawing the Asian Green bee eater, who flies free in Việt Nam.
Thank you, Chị Diệp and the Pacific Links team for this wonderful opportunity to serve our children, and for Chau for being an amazing translator/partner/Vietnamese tutor in this!
Rancho Los Cerritos: Then & Now
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!
Institutions and Inequitites
Location: Stanford University
Date: Tuesday, May 21, 2024
My belovèd 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 oppressive structures, and the ways that we might navigate through them in hope, in faith, and in prayer. Sharing in our immigration and his refugee experience, our hope is to encourage the youth who are facing the daunting circumstances in their own personal battles, and wars at large.
Our talk will follow with a hands-on, art-making meditative workshop, stemming from Peace be to this House, wherein we will consider the ways that we can be more effective peacemakers in a chaotic world.
Thank you, Michelle, for your hospitality and your continuous care in the work.
Girls in Áo Dài 3 by Nguyên Thanh Binh
Áo dài Festival 2024: A Modern Fairy Tale
Presented by Friends of Huế Foundation
Festival Date: Saturday, May 18, 2024
Location: San José City Hall, 200 East Santa Clara, San José, CA (Free and open to the public)
3-5pm: Outdoor Opening Ceremony and Arts Activities
Evening Event [Purchase tickets] : San José City Hall Rotunda
5pm: Cocktail Hour
6-9pm: Evening Gala and Fashion Show
In honor of tradition and culture, Friends of Huế Foundation is proud to present the 2024 Áo dài Festival. This event we hold particularly pressed upon our hearts, as it will be the first to take place after our founder’s passing (Your legacy lives on, Dear Jenny.) I’m happy to be contributing as an advisor for arts engagement and also will be curating an art exhibit in support of the children’s shelter.
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. 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.
This year’s Áo dài Festival includes an opening ceremony and an evening gala. The ceremony and festival will be a presentation of colors, sound, and opulence. Stilt walkers, drummers, and models in colorful Áo Dài, adorning the San José City Hall, along with food trucks and interactive art workshops. For the evening event, guests will enjoy music, gourmet wine, hors d’oeuvres, and have an opportunity to meet our artists and áo dài designers and bid on artwork.
Learn more about the origins of the Áo dài Festival
Take flight with us!
Downtown Public Art Tour
Location: Downtown Long Beach, CA
Public Art Tour Date: Thursday, May 9, 2024 9am-1pm
Organized by Long Beach Arts Council in partnership with Long Beach Unified School District (LBUSD)
This is exciting! I’ll be spending a day sauntering through our downtown streets with the young ladies of LBUSD’s Female Leadership Academy as we admire, learn, and draw inspiration from the diverse public artwork that is scattered all over our Downtown Long Beach. This program is part of ArtsLB’s Eye on Design program that fosters an appreciation for public art and the environments in which it dwells as it populates our city with the stories, color, and talent that makes it unique, rich, bold, and welcoming. With a few murals now under my tool belt, it is my privilege to talk inspiration and process with our youth!
< One of my favorite murals in Long Beach by Ernest Zacharevic
Keynote for Brown’s Artistic Practitioner Fellows
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 to Brown 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 and how it is expressed in our work. After the remarks, I’ll be in conversation with a literary artist Jacinda Townsend, 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!
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.