Exhibitions :: Events :: Announcements :: 2021 - 2022
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 - December 2023: 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 December 2023: Hidden Heritages Revealed: Artist Talk with Trinh Mai @ San José Museum of Art (dates to come)
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.
Meet Trinh Mai | Fine Art Professional
Published by Shoutout SoCal
Publish date: November 8, 2022
A SoCal shoutout to Shoutout SoCal for taking some time to interview me for a profile piece. I was nice to take a couple steps back and reflect on my career, recognize the folks who have guided me here, to share in the Whys of the work, and to mention the ones who have walked with us as we seek our path.
A big thank you to Sadry Hedayat, who nominated me for this interview, and Patrick for the feature!
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
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.
Me Too/Vietnamese Bodies
Published by 128 Lit, New York, NY
Publish date: November 2022
In 2018, I embarked on uncharted territory when I worked on a poem with She Who Has No Master(s), a loose collective of Vietnamese women writers in a creating a collaborative poem, which we performed at the Asian Art Museum and the International Hotel in San Francisco. It was a visceral experience to stand shoulder to shoulder with these women, absorbing the poignant words of Aimee Phan, Anh-Hoa Thi Nguyen, Dao Strom, Isabelle Thuy Pelaud, Julie Thi Underhill, Stacey Tran, and Thao P. Nguyen.
We are proud to announce our choral poem, Me Too/Vietnamese Bodies, has been published in 128 Lit. We thank them for helping echo our works into communities, whose members may share in our experiences in oppression, in abuse, in survival, and in healing.
A prayer to the ones to fight for survival, that their suffering may be alleviated, that their wounds might heal, and that their bodies, minds, and souls might find rest. We are with you.
Us too.
Glory Be
For Long Beach Chorale & Chamber Orchestra
For the 2022-2023 Winter Concert Season
It warms my heart to witness when music+visual art collide! I’ve created an original work of art for Long Beach Chorale as a visual accompaniment for their upcoming 2022-2023 winter concert series.
Featuring Vivaldi’s Gloria, a baroque masterpiece beloved by audiences and choruses around the world, as well as rousing arrangements of the spiritual “Go Tell It On the Mountain” and a raucous setting of Psalm 150, this is a concert of joy and celebration that is sure to put you and yours in the holiday spirit.
The work will be 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.
<<< Here is the image of the work, titled Glory Be, an original painting that will be available for purchase. A portion of the proceeds will be going to support their continued work.
Purchase tickets to witness this gift of song, or donate to support these voices as they continue gracing our community.
Arise. Shine. Thy Light is Come. (Current)
Produced by Los Ángeles World Airports (LAWA)
Location: Los Angeles International Airport (LAX), Tom Bradley International Terminal, Mezzanine
Mural will be on exhibit from Winter 2022 - Winter 2023
Thank you, LAWA, for granting me an enormous canvas and generous support to paint more birrrrds! I am trilling with joy!
This summer, I’ll have the privilege of working on my largest mural to date (9 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 Angeles 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 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*
Long Beach Professional Artist Fellowship
Supported by Arts Council for Long Beach, the City of Long Beach, Percent for Arts Program,
and the National Endowment for the Arts
Fellowship period: 2021-2022
I am elated to announce that I’ve been selected as one of Long Beach’s Professional Artist Fellows!
This city has inspired me deeply with its colorful people and the plethora of public murals that populate our streets, paying tribute to our neighbors by honoring the rich culture that has seeped itself into our city walls. It is my joy to discover and develop the ways in which I can serve our communities through art.
Congratulations to my fellow recipients, and thank you to Arts Council for Long Beach and the organizations who have shown such great support for our life’s work!
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!
This Body I Have Tried to Write (Current)
Published by MAYDAY Magazine
Publish date: October 17, 2022
I am happy to announce my collaboration with fellow Long Beach Professional Artist Fellow and Poet Ja’net Danielo. She is the author of This Body I Have Tried to Write, whose cover upon which my marks will have the privilege of taking residence.
Our works both touch on the activities of the microcosmic and macrocosmic, and the nature of decay, growth, and healing, in all of its vigor and fragility.
Ja’net and I will also be showing together in an exhibit called Impermanence: Stories of Rupture and Repair, an exhibition presented by the Long Beach Arts Council.
Painting Poetry
Presented by Billie Jean King Public Library
As part of the Long Beach Poet Laureate Program
Location: Billie Jean King Main Library, 200 W Broadway, Long Beach, CA 90802
Date: Saturday, November 19, 2022
It has been my honor to have worked with such diverse communities during my Long Beach Professional Artist Fellowship. This fall, I will have the pleasure of working closely with our young poets who are part of the Long Beach Poet Laureate Program.
I’ll be facilitating a workshop wherein we will be painting our poetry. The works created from this workshop will be exhibited at the Poet Laureate Program Commencement. Looking forward to helping to introduce paint as a way to bring a different kind of vitality to their vibrant verses!
Fear not.
Co-sponsored by Stanford University’s Institute for Diversity in the Arts (IDA), Asian American Studies,
and the Center for Comparative Studies in Race & Ethnicity
Location: Harmony House, 561 Lomita Drive, Stanford, CA, 94305
Workshop date: Thursday, November 3, 2022 3:30-4:30
It’s been years since I’ve facilitated the Fear not. workshop, and I am so looking forward to offering to the Stanford community. Fear seeps through our everyday in worry, in concern, and if we are willing, can be extinguished through hope.
I’ll be spending the afternoon workshopping with community members as we purge and bury our fears together.
Thank you, dear Michelle, for organizing this, and IDA for hosting us!
Things Hidden | Things Revealed
Location: Vietnamese American Cultural Studies at Stanford University
Artist talk date: November 3, 2022 12-1:30pm
My first ever artist talk took place at Stanford in 2012, and I am so happy to have been invited back a decade later to talk art with her students, and beside my belovèd husband. I’ll be discussing how my practice is driven by the curiosity that stirs from the stories hidden, and how the process can lead to the surprising discoveries that I can’t help but try to reveal through art (even if sometimes only to myself). Some of these hidden stories are perhaps those that tell of fractures within the family. Some of war. Some are stories of wounds that have pierced so deeply, that we choose to cover them to keep them from opening any wider. Some stories are buried, as it is not yet time to tell. Some stories resurface without notice. All have the potential to impact our lives in profound ways, whether or not we may be ready for this transformation to occur. Hiền and I together will be touching on immigration issues and how they have affected the marriage, the family, and the community dynamic.
I look forward to gazing back at a body of works completed from the last seven years with our students, faculty, and community members, as my husband and I share in these stories together publicly for the first time. These talks surely provide a deeper understanding for us (and hopefully for our students), as we examine the work and experiences from the third person, so we appreciate the invitation to share.
Thank you, Ms. Michelle, for the invitation to speak and learn with your Stanford family!
Understory: As retold by Trinh Mai & Birds
Presented by the San José State Department of Art & Art History as part of Tuesday Night Lecture Series Hosted by the Natalie and James Thompson Gallery
Location: San José State University, Art Lecture Hall (Art Building Room 133)
Date: Tuesday, September 13, 2022 5-6pm
I love this school. Here, I met my belovèd husband of 22 years. I met this bird. I learned to love long hours. I learned that art required more than my physical senses. I learned how to be disciplined and witnessed the abundance of fruit that sprouted therefrom. I learned to build community around me. I learned what the true voice sounds like. And looks like. And behaves like. And I learned that many times, it contained more voices than just that of my own.
As a thirsty undergraduate who attended Tuesday Night Lectures, I was privileged to have witnessed a plethora of professional artists who shared with us determined students the methods of their practices, which surely contributed to materializing my dream. It is my humble honor to return to this lecture hall to now share with our new generation of artists, students, faculty, and community members, the practice that began as a seed sewn upon this verdant campus.
A very special thanks to the professors who had a profound impact upon my pursuit of art as a young sapling: Tony May, Robert Chiarito, Rupert Garcia, Patrick Surgalski, Gale Antokal, Stan Welsh, and Reed Estabrook. You encouraged me by making me feel like I had something special to offer. You taught me how to see, and how to feel my way through that sight—in gesture, color, mark, thought, truth. Thank you, thank you. (I also blame you for my inability to choose a medium because you lit such a fire in me with every disciplined approach that I learned from each of you! :)
Understory: As retold by Trinh Mai & Birds
Location: Triton Museum of Art, 1505 Warburton Avenue, Santa Clara, CA 95050 Exhibition Dates: May 28, 2022 - September 4, 2022 Meet & Greet with the artist: Saturday, May 28, 12-1pm Opening Reception: Saturday, May 28, 1-4pm Closing Reception: Saturday, September 3, 2-4pm
Artist statement for Understory:
In an effort to examine the refugee and immigrant experience, then and now, Trinh Mai renders the stories whose threads bind our witnessing of war, our will to survive the wounds they’ve planted, and our waking from the wreckage that calls forth inevitable growth.
Understory weaves we the people—the living history—into the forgone histories whose effects remain deeply rooted in humanity still. It tells of the inpouring of those fleeing oppression and the indwelling of an inherent resilience that stirs wildly within us, even when trudging in the darkness of wars, personal and political. These are the stories of us—the ones that have been seeded in hardship and healing, in persecution and perseverance, in displacement, despair and determination—these that inspire compassion and custodial responsibility.
This exhibition acknowledges the wars that have always been. It waters that which has seeped itself deep into the soil upon which we now stand, and harvests the pulp before folding it into the fissures of the fractured, with the hope of cultivating new courage.
Remembering our predecessors, those who have fought alongside us, and the ones in mid-flight, Understory honors our existence as an enduring people.
We are very excited about this show and we hope that you will join us.
Memory as Medium
Presented by Stanford Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center As part of the Quarterly Educational Seminar Series
Location: Zoom room [Register here]
Date: Friday, August 26, 2022 12-1pm
In 2016, I had the privilege of working with Alzheimer’s patients with as they created works of art, and was given the opportunity to sink further into the project when I was invited to make a work of art in response to one of the patient’s works. We began the project, called Memories in the Making, by spending some time together, during which I learned more about his life, his history, and his joys. The project utilized art as a catalyst for reliving memory, a tool to for documenting memory in visual form, and served as a stimulus to keep the memory alive as participants were encouraged to share them with others.
During my grandmother’s last few years of life, I was very blessed to have spent so much time with her consistently in art. Although we hadn’t made art together (she was more interested in classical music than contemporary art), we would actively engage in art criticism. I would show her new work that I was developing, and we’d speak in length and depth about story, concept. She—the sharp, traditional, critical grandmother—would engage enthusiastically. And although she did not suffer from Alzheimer’s, I did witness the very similar stirring of memory during our discussions, which further solidified my faith in art as medicine and a tool for retrieving memory.
It brings me great joy to have been invited to present these experiences with our leading neuropathologists in hopes that we can find ways to help prevent and treat the disease, while helping to perhaps alleviate some of the burdens through art.
Thank you, Virginia and Team for the opportunity to speak with our communities on this important issue that so many of us take for granted.
Oceanside Museum of 2022 Art Auction
Location: Oceanside Museum of Art, 704 Pier View Way, Oceanside, CA 92054 Preview Exhibition: June 18 - July 30, 2022 Live auction and VIP reception: June 25, 2022 7-8:30pm Online bidding will open to the public from 11:00am on June 26 through 5:00pm on August 1, 2022
I will be donating a series of 8 small abstract/calligraphic works for OMA's 2022 Art Auction. These haven’t been shown, so I’m excited to see them framed and on the gallery walls alongside fellow artists hailing from Los Angeles to Tijuana.
Bid on artwork Thank you for supporting the arts! After the auction, this series will be available for purchase at the museum store: Messages known but not remembered, No. 1 through 9, 2019, Belle’s acrylic on paper, 8 x 8” each
Artist Statement:
When I first discovered voice in art, I was deeply enamored with the spiritually intuitive nature of abstract painting. I spent countless hours studying Arabic and Kanji on large-scale canvas so that I could feel its movement through my body as I painted these abstract forms. Once in a while, I feel an urge to return to these hidden languages.
In a period of great mourning, from a hotel room, I reconstructed the symbols of the English language as an attempt to write myself out of the grief, while attempting to conceal content. I cannot recall if I was composing a letter to myself or transcribing scripture, but feel that it may have been one of the two. In time, the memory of the words dissolved as the lamenting quieted. What remains are unknown symbols that document a time of anguish. In this, the purpose of the work lives in its process, rather than in the end result--illegible and unknowable both to the viewer and the author.
Memories of Tomorrow’s Sunrise
Presented by Ronald H. Silverman Fine Arts Gallery in partnership with LA Art Documents
Location: The Ronald H. Silverman Fine Arts Gallery, CSULA, 5151 State University Drive, Los Ángeles, CA 90032 Exhibition dates: June 8 - July 15, 2022
Opening Reception: Wednesday, June 8, 2022 5-9pm
Closing Reception: Friday, July 15, 2022 5-7pm
Artist Talks: June 28, 2022 7-9pm
I’ve been invited to show alongside 12 artists whose works touch on themes of ancestral influence and memory. This exhibition speaks on art as method for survival, and on the ways that tragedy has a way of revealing purpose and strength.
Thank you for the invitation, Jason and Vojislav.
View installation process
Read our reviews in Art and Cake, Fabrik Magazine, and Diversions LA
Getty + Long Beach
Presented by The Getty Center + Long Beach Creative Coalition
Location: Houghton Park, 6301 Myrtle Avenue, Long Beach, CA 90805
Festival dates: Saturday and Sunday, June 4–5, 2022 11am–6pm
In partnership with Rancho Los Cerritos, a selection of my series We Are Here will be on display as part of Roots in Long Beach: Concepts of Home in celebration of the Getty Center’s 25th Anniversary. For this milestone, J. Paul Getty Trust is partnering with neighborhoods across Los Angeles to produce ten community-centric festivals that embrace the local community, and showcase LA’s diverse communities as rich arts culture through Getty-inspired programming.
Long Beach will be hosting this celebration under the hundred-year-old palm trees in Houghton Park, with live music, dance performances, interactive workshops, live artmaking, and an artisan marketplace. I’ll be showing alongside 9 local artists.
Thank you, Carlos, for the invitation to exhibit work that helps to describe the broad yet intimate concept of home.
Grow Our Souls
Location: SOMArts, 934 Brannan Street, San Francisco, CA 94103 Exhibition dates: April 30 - May 22, 2022 VIP Preview: Friday, April 29, 2022 5-6pm Artist Panel with Susette S. Min, Professor of Asian American Studies: Friday, April 29, 2022 6-7pm Opening reception: Friday, April 29, 2022 7-8pm AAWAA open studios: Saturday, April 30, 2022 4-6pm
From the Curator Melissa Wang (Thank you for the invitation) :
Growing our souls is a philosophical concept coined by Grace Lee Boggs. It is an approach whose “goal is a higher Humanity instead of the higher standard of living dependent on Empire.” Ten artists explore, inquire and interrogate the relationship between material and materiality, and how one’s engagement with materials or material practices influence and inform the world around us.
I’m excited to be debuting Seed, my most recent completed work, alongside so many works that I admire by the artists who are presenting in this show.
Learn more and view the virtual gallery
Fear Not. : Artist Talk and Workshop with Trinh Mai
Artist Talk and workshop with yours truly
Presented in partnerhship by WeRise LA and Arts Council for Long Beach
Location: Green Pines Media, 129 W 5th St, Long Beach, CA 90802
Program Date: Saturday, May 7, 2022: 11-11:45am Artist Talk and Q&A; 12-2pm Workshop
Registration required, as there are only 20 seats available. (Please send me a note to reserve your space.)
For Mental Health Awareness Month, I am delighted to have been invited to develop a program for Long Beach’s Bridging Wellness program series, part of WeRise, an initiative of the Los Angeles County Department of Mental Health that encourages wellbeing and healing through art, connection, community engagement, and creative expression.
I’ll be doing an artist talk, describing how I confront grief, fear, and seek healing in my own work, while encouraging others to do so as well through creative faculties. The talk will be followed by a Fear Not. workshop. A new iteration of the That We Should Be Heirs installation will also be on display during the event, to which guests are invited to contribute their writings.
Things Hidden for Mỹ Việt (American Vietnamese) Story Slam
Presented by the Vietnamese Boat People Podcast
Location: Vietnamese Boat People on Facebook Live via Zoom
Program Date: Wednesday, May 4, 2022 4:30pm PST 7:30pm EST
I’ve been selected as a Storyteller for the 2022 Mỹ Việt Story Slam. I’ll be sharing some of my new work, including Things Hidden, and describing how my family history and the immigration/refugee experience has inspired this installation and my current body of work. I’ll be sharing stories with four of my fellow Vietnamese Americans for this program, which will be followed by a Q&A.
We are very excited that our stories will be preserved at Tamiment Library and Robert F. Wagner Labor Archives at New York University. Here’s to keeping our histories alive for our future generations.
Oceanside Museum of Art’s Artist Alliance Biennial
Location: Oceanside Museum of Art, 704 Pier View Way, Oceanside, CA 92054
Exhibition Dates: December 18, 2021-May 1, 2022 Opening Reception: Saturday, February 12, 2022 5-7pm reception Living (Art) History Workshop with yours truly: Sunday, April 3, 2022 2:30-4pm
At part of this years Artist Alliance Biennial, I’m so very happy that for the first time, Begins with Tea will be showing in its entirety—208 of Bà Ngoại’s (Grandmother) tea bags. This one’s an oldie, but it remains one of my favorite works because of the memories seeped into each piece, and the process that led me gently from working on flat surfaces to working in and with space. I’m also happy to announce that this series was awarded 3rd place by the juror (Thank you, Alessandra, and a big congratulations to my fellow awardees Lani Emanuel, Lucy Boyd-Wilson, and Terry Allen!)
This year, OMA received over 600 submissions, from which 62 works were selected. OMA’s Biennials are juried shows that are open to OMA Artist Alliance members. Interested in submitting work to be considered? We invite you to become a member, which offers opportunities for Quarterly Exchanges, exclusive opportunities to submit work to juried shows, and to participate in Coffee & Conversations with the artists and community.
A Growing Collection
Location: Oceanside Museum of Art, 704 Pier View Way, Oceanside, CA 92054
Exhibition Dates: March 5 - April 9, 2022 Opening Reception: Saturday, February 12, 2022 5-7pm reception Workshop with yours truly: Sunday, April 3, 2022 2:30-4pm
Celebrating OMA’s 25th year anniversary and looking toward an exciting period of growth, A Growing Collection presents a selection of recent donations to OMA's collection that are featured in the beautiful street-facing, sun-saturated gallery. Exhibition staff have selected some of the most noteworthy works donated to the collection in the last five years, providing visitors a fresh and exciting visual experience that explores the art and stories of Southern California artists.
After a meaningful collaborative experience in 2017 on our project A Time to Heal, the piece War, Freedom, and the Truth became one of the first artworks to be acquired by the museum. This work, created by Marine Veteran John Wayne, Photographer J. Grant Brittain, and yours truly, will be on display alongside 12 other works as part of a small selection of OMA’s growing collection.
Painting and Poetry as a Language of Peace Leadership in Order to Transcend Global Violence
Presented by the Center for Global Engagement, the International Education Council, and the School of Leadership Studies
Location: Gonzaga University, 502 E Boone Ave, Spokane, WA 99258
Fellowship period: March 1-5 2022
Tuesday, March 1, 2021 1-1:40pm: Art Foundations; 2:10-3pm: Methods and Materials
Wednesday, March 3, 2022 5-6pm: Reception; 7:30pm: Artists talk and interview with Shann Ray,
followed by Q&A in Wolff Auditorium as part of the Faculty Senate Speaker Series
Thursday, March 4, 2022 1pm: Faculty and Staff Contemplation; 2pm: Narrative and Figuration
Friday, March 5, 2021 2:30-4pm: Peace Leadership Studies
In the winter of 2020, I had the privilege of collaborating with Shann Ray on a book of poetry and art, driven by our lived experiences of faith, loss, and our love and mourning for humanity.
This spring, we will meet in person for the first time to continue working together in examining war and violence with the heart of peace. We will be presenting our creative work and the research that fuels it, also engaging Gonzaga’s leadership students, faculty, staff, and community members with one on one or small group mentoring. Our goal is to offer new ways to envision leadership through the imagination, and to examine how personal leadership is informed by global leadership toward the common good in the wake of human violence, bereavement and loss.
Thank you, Shann, for the invitation to take part in this critical work.
Undocumented Women’s Fund Art Auction
Undocumented Women’s Fund, New York, NY
Art auction dates: January 16, 2021 - March 5, 2022 Learn more about the plight of undocumented women in NYC.
The Undocumented Women’s Fund is a grass roots organization that supports undocumented women by identifying some of the most pressing needs of undocumented women who are head of their households in NYC, building a network to mobilize existing resources to meet those needs, providing direct financial support in areas where no other resources are available through distribution of cash grants, and fosters the development of sustainable mutual-aid systems – a network led by immigrant and undocumented women.
Sanctuary City Project and I are utilizing our collaborative work, Seeking Sanctuary, to help bring awareness to the ones who are in their plight—particularly the mothers, daughters, sisters, aunties who raised us—these women who strive to uphold their families, regardless of circumstances. This kind of enduring strength inspires us, and we find great joy in donating works from our Seeking Sanctuary collection in support of our beloved women.
Consider purchasing some art in support of our sisters.
Proverbs 31: 16, 20-21
She considereth a field, and buyeth it: with the fruit of her hands she planteth a vineyard.
She stretcheth out her hand to the poor; yea, she reacheth forth her hands to the needy.
She is not afraid of the snow for her household: for all her household are clothed with scarlet.
Year of the Tiger: 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, February 26, 2020 11:30-3:30pm
Free and open to the public
After a hiatus due to the covid pandemic, I’m happy to be back working with Pacific Symphony and an amazing team on this year's lantern installation in celebration of the 2022 Lunar New Year of the Tiger. It will be a joy to gather again for this. On display will be hundreds of hand-painted lanterns by students from the 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 called My Culture Shines, which will showcase the works students and emerging artists. Register for free tickets.
Chúc Mừng Năm Mới, Everyone! (Happy Lunar New Year!)
For the ones we love
For Living Arts Long Beach
Location: United Cambodian Community, 2201 E Anaheim St #200, Long Beach, CA 90804
Workshop Dates: Wednesdays, February 9 + 23, 2022, 3:30-6pm
Registration required
I am so very excited to be serving our youth as a visiting artists for Living Arts Long Beach, an immersion program that serves disadvantage youth and young adults by offering art classes that foster the creativity and imagination within them. I’ll be spending some time sharing my work, discussing my practice, challenges in my pursuit, and facilitating workshops in which we excavate family stories, and respond to them the spoken and the written word. The goal: to create a collaborative installation in which our artworks are one voice within a whole.
Throughout my life, I haven’t had the privilege of being exposed to much of the Cambodian culture. Until a few years ago, my exposure to the Cambodian face had been limited to my portrait studies of my husband, his father, and some of his family members. (He is lai—Vietnamese for multiethnic—a Vietnamese Cambodian American). After having spent more time in Long Beach, I began seeking out the tones of Khmer language, marveling at her script, seeing Cambodian faces all around me, and recognizing the Cambodian features that are shared by so many in the Khmer community—the richness and warmth of the burnt sienna+raw umber tone of the skin, the angular jaw lines, the dark, wide eyes, and the thick, black hair. (I’m the one that fades Hiền up, and that hair is thickity thick thick thick.) I’ve loved living among the Khmer community, as it offers me a deeper experience into the understanding of my dear husband’s roots.
Thank you, Sayon, for the invitation into UCC to explore our histories with our youth! Very exciting.
Hostile Terrain
Location: Gallery 51, Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts, 51 Main St, North Adams, MA 01247
Exhibition Dates: February 4 - December 10, 2021 Exhibition Preview: Tuesday, March 2, 2021
Opening Reception: Friday July 2, 2021 7-9pm EST
Fast Company Magazine publishes a piece that mentions our show: October 2021
Community Walk-through: December 9, 2021 1:30pm EST
[Take a peek.]
[Take a tour with the artists.]
I’m am so very excited to be working closely with MCLA, participating alongside artists/educators/researchers whose works I deeply admire, and whose projects align so closely with the stories that I’m currently telling in my current work. This exhibition includes Hostile Terrain 94, a project directed by anthropologist Jason De León, and Sanctuary City Project, a project created by artists Sergio De La Torre and Chris Treggiari. This collective show focuses on the current immigration crisis, the wounds that have been afflicted upon families by unjust practices of law, the lives that have been damaged and destroyed by the abuses of power, and the hope through which we continue making art in healing and empathy for and with the People.
In Fall 2020, MCLA hosted a series virtual lectures, workshops, conversations, and studio visits with me to engage our students, faculty, and community members. These opportunities made space for intimate discussions about concept development, inspiration, excavating histories, and how projects and stories can inform each other. I shared ephemera and materials and talked about how they help in storytelling, and shared some developing projects that will be on display in the Hostile Terrain exhibit.
It is my honor to be a part of this exhibition and address these critical issues with the community. Thank you, Erica, for the invitation.
Yay! Our billboard at 6 Cheshire Road, overlooking the snow-covered streets of Pittsfield, MA
Cæsura 2021: Unmasking
Published by Poetry Center San José, 1650 Senter Road, San José, CA 95112 Publish date: September 2021
I am pleased to announce that two of my small mixed media works (Things Revealed No.1 and No.2) has been published in Cæsura’s 2021 print and online issues. This is very exciting since the series is still in the making. (It hasn’t even published it on this website yet.)
For more than three decades, Cæsura served its members as a literary newsletter and magazine. Beginning with the 25th anniversary issue in 2005, Cæsura updated its appearance and focus as a literary journal that includes poems, short fiction, non-fiction, critical work, book reviews, and interviews.
So happy to have the work published in a journal that was created in my home town. Thank you, PCSJ.
Stretched Language: Explorations into Visual and Mathematical Poetry
Location: Bonita Art Museum, 4355 Bonita Road, Bonita, CA 91902
Exhibition Dates: November 6 - December 3, 2021
Opening Reception: November 6, 2021 4:30-7:30pm
The exhibition explores language as a method for examining the world.
Works on display embrace the Visual Poetry genera (not to be confused with Concrete Poetry and Asemic writing). Four pieces from my collaborative work with Sanctuary City Project, Seeking Sanctuary, will be making their debut.
Thank you, Vallo, for the invitation.
The Artists’ Grief Deck
Produced by the Artists’ Literacies Institute, 601 W 26th St, New York, NY 10001 In partnership with: New York City Voluntary Organizations Active in Disaster (NYCVOAD) National Hospice Cooperative (NHC), and Ohio’s Hospice Fall 2022: Second edition printed by Princeton Architectural Press
I am pleased to share one of my works, What Is To Come, along with its accompanying statement, will be included in first edition of The Artists’ Grief Deck, a card deck tool kit that mobilizes artists and grief workers to help millions process loss in the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Alongside 50 fellow artists, my painting will be printed on a card as part of a deck that will be distributed to NYCVAOD’s national partners for use in supporting grief processing in isolation, with the hope of bringing comfort to those who have lost loved ones.
To date, this project has been sent out to 10 countries on 4 continents, as well as to 40 US states, and also Puerto Rico and the District of Columbia.
Learn more about this beautiful project
Purchase your own Artists’ Grief Deck in English or en Español
AAWAA’s 2021 Art Auction
Presented by Asian American Women Arts Association
Dates: November 5-15, 2021
Location: online
I’m happy to have the opportunity to support AAWAA’s mission to highlight the contributions of Asian American women artists by donating a work of art to their first ever online art auction + fundraiser.
Founded in 1989 by noted regional artists Betty Kano and Flo Oy Wong along with Mills College professor Moira Roth and artist Bernice Bing, AAWAA continues to dedicate herself to high-quality multidisciplinary art exhibitions, community art projects, publications, and programming that reaches diverse local and national audiences.
Living Democracy
Location: Platform Gallery, Interdisciplinary Humanities Center, University of California, Santa Barbara
Exhibition Dates: August 19, 2020 - August 2021 Opening Reception: to be announced
Living Democracy brings UCSB’s academic and community guests into dialogue with the Interdisciplinary Humanities Center’s to engage perspectives from the humanities to explore the forces and conditions that imperil democracy and the political, social, and cultural interventions needed to make democracy equitable, vibrant, and just.
Learn more about the Living Democracy public events series
Inspired: Selections from OMA Staff
Location: Oceanside Museum of Art, 704 Pier View Way, Oceanside, CA 92054 Exhibition: February 1 - May 23, 2021 View virtual tour View current exhibitions live on KOCT Television: March 27, 2021 7pm
How humbling to have had my work nominated for this show. Running through the cusp of spring|summer, OMA presents a group show which includes artists that her staff feels has made an impact on fabric of the San Diego art scene. Completed in 2019, three pieces from my Mẹ Ơi (Dear Mother) collection will be debuting at this show.
Thank you for the nomination, Lu. And a massive thank you to OMA and her sister museums for the dedicated spirit that continues supporting artists and offering our work to the community through the challenging world of virtual programming during this difficult time.
From the OMA Staff:
OMA relies on the collective experience of a talented team of arts professionals to envision, create, and share programs and exhibitions for our audiences to enjoy. Staff members whose roles normally fall outside of the curatorial process have been invited to make recommendations of artists whose work excites and inspires them for this special staff picks exhibition. The result is a lively show that brings together the breathtaking creativity that surrounds us in Southern California, as we learn about new artists and strengthen former relationships.
Flesh of my Flesh: Artist Trinh Mai
Interview on KwokTalk, KTUH 90.1 FM, Honolulu, HI
Air date: April 15, 2021
I had the privilege of sitting down with Crystal Kwok to speak about the current happenings in my studio, mind, and heart. Our conversations hovered around process, materiality, and themes of woundedness, healing, things hidden, and things revealed.
An wonderful conversation on the responsibilities we bear as documentarians of history.
Thank you for the invitation to speak with you, Crystal.
Hobson’s Choice 2.0
Location: Torrance Art Museum, 3320 Civic Center Drive, Torrance, CA 90503 Dates: January 8 - April 30, 2021
As winter teeters into spring, a small selection of my work has been selected for Hobson’s Choice, to be included in TAM’s online programing during this pandemic, while we wait for her doors to open.
Each week, from February through May 2021, TAM will feature the work’s of one artist along with accompanying statements.
During this time, when museums and artists are hanging onto by the threads of their faith in art, I want to extend a deep breath of gratitude for the work that you all are doing to keep what momentum we’ve built together.
AAWAA’s 2021 Slide Slam
Presented by Asian American Women Arts Association in partnership with DVAN
Date: Saturday, March 27, 2021 at 4 - 6pm PDT
Location: zoom room
I’m happy to have been invited to participate in AAWAA’s rapid-fire format presentation of artwork created by Asian American women artists. I must admit, I’m feeling a bit anxious about this since it will be quickity quick quick, and those who know me know that I can go on forever when talking all things art and ideas-related. Each of us artists will have only four minutes to present 4 slides (eek!), so this will be an exciting challenge. We’ll be speaking about what what’s been holding our attention during recent days in our studios. Always looking forward to experiencing new things!
Thank you for the invitation, Isabelle.
Things Hidden: A Talk with Artist Trinh Mai
Presented by the Vietnamese American Society of Creative Arts and Music (VASCAM), Bloomington, IN
Location: VASCAM social media platforms
Artist talk: Things Hidden: A Talk with Artist Trinh Mai: Saturday, March 20, 2021
VASCAM presents her 2021 Artist Talk Series that will feature composers and artists of Vietnamese descent, and I am happy to have been invited to participate. We’ll be speaking about process, aesthetics, and cultural influences. We will delve into the challenges of creative processes, and how we overcome them to continue striving to develop our higher calling.
Aiming to connect artists to guests during our time of quarantine to defeat the current pandemic, these talks with be featured in both in English and Vietnamese. Artists’ videos will be published monthly from February through November 2021.
Thank you Anvi and Anh Phuc for the invitation to share.
CreativiTEA
Presented by Chopsticks Alley Location: zoom room Date: Thursday, March 25, 2021 and every last Thursday
Still on that poetry binge, y’all.
Since our last Hidden Heritages poetry workshop (see below), I’ve been dedicating more time to verse. For this event, I’ll be reading a new piece that speaks on the responsibility of utilizing inheritance in the service of carrying forth our stories and those of our ancestors.
Text has been introducing itself more often in the studio work in correspondence, in story, and in verse.
Sign up to share your poetry, your visual art, or to gather with us and listen.
San José Poetry Slam
Presented by Poetry Center San José Location: zoom room Date: Sunday, March 14, 2021
During my first years at San José, before I had discovered my voice in the visual arts, I wanted to be a poet. I would attend open mics to study the works of local poets. I’d sit attentively, listening to the varied cadences of their words on life and death, humor, hardship, and human relationships. These gatherings inspired me deeply.
Soon, I discovered the poetry slams, poetry competitions that would offer cash prizes, which would afford me a couple lunches outside of the SJSU Student Union and Dining Commons. (This was a big deal to me back then. I could only eat so many carne asada super burritos and chicken tenders.) I’ll be participating in my first poetry slam in over 20 years … just to see what happens, to support other poets, and practice some reading.
After our last Hidden Heritages poetry workshop (see below), I’ve been flooded with a renewing inspiration for the verse. I wrote my first poem since 2017, when Belle moved on from this life. For this event, I’m planning to read a new piece, and the piece in honor of her as away of sharing her life with others. (Love you, Belle.)
Ca Dao Journey|Poetry|Life
A Poetry Workshop with Poets Anh Bui and Chinh Nguyễn Presented by San José Museum of Art and Chopsticks Alley Location: San José Museum of Art’s zoom room Dates of residency: Saturday, February 13, 2021 10:45 - 12 noon: workshop with open mic to follow
In celebration of Tết / Lunar New Year of the Ox, Poets Anh Bui and Chinh Nguyễn will be bringing their gifts to the public by facilitating a poetry workshop to teach us about traditional forms of Vietnamese poetry! I am so very excited about revisiting poetry again after so long. After the workshop, there will be an open mic during which I’ll be reading a couple pieces. Looking forward to hearing the rhythms and messages that will be offered.
This program is part of our year-long project, Hidden Heritages: San José’s Vietnamese Legacy in which Vietnamese artists and community members come together to share, amplify, and artistically present stories that reveal the contributions of Vietnamese Americans to San José.
Register to join us!
rest in peace, Bác Hưng.
Cemetery Talks: Race, Place and Pilgrimage
Presented by PlacemakingUS, Portland, OR | Nationwide
Dialogue date: January 26, 2021 5pm PST
I’ve been invited to take part in a panel discussion that focuses on the roles that we, the placemakers, offer the community to help us remember our histories while considering how they inevitably affect our present lives. We will be exchanging ideas on what it means to remember, to dis-remember, why we choose to do so, and what ways this these decisions are expressed.
From the organizers:
Cemeteries, as an example, are often some of the best-preserved green spaces in modern cities. Yet cultural norms in the United States prevent many of them from being used to their full potential as public spaces that fill the needs of the living while respecting the memory of the deceased. In many other places, the process of remembrance encourages ongoing use of memorial spaces and burial grounds, even including celebrations held by the community and the family members of the deceased. We would like to look at these cultural examples to reexamine these spaces and their meaning. We consider pilgrimage is a practice of remembering, affirming, and reconstructing ourselves, our communities, and the worlds we live in by listening, remembering, mourning, honoring, and sharing our hidden and silenced stories of trauma and resistance. Pilgrimage defragments and reconnects us to ourselves and to our communities and to the world at large. It contests the curtains of illusions that normalize structures and narratives of inequality and oppression.