Dũng Quốc Nguyễn (b.1983, Đắk Lắk) is a Vietnamese painter based in Ho Chi Minh City. He describes his practice as a visual diary about people who are marginalized in Vietnamese society. His work includes depictions of sex workers, migrant workers, and a transgender community living at the outskirts of Saigon. All paintings and sketches belong to the artist and are reproduced here with his permission.
Phương Đức (b. 1982, Lai Châu) is a Hanoi-based painter and sculptor known for his naïve style drawing on Vietnamese folk motifs, and for his use of organic materials, such as pigments made from soil.
Mai Nguyên Anh (b.1992, Hanoi) is a visual artist, photo-journalist, and organizer based in Hanoi. He is a co-founder of Matca, a nonprofit dedicated to promoting photography as an art form in Vietnam. All images and accompanying text are by Mai Nguyên Anh and are reproduced here with his permission.
Yến Dương (b. 1991, Hanoi) is a photojournalist and photo artist based between Berlin and Hanoi. Alternative Imaginaries explores the interrelationship between collective and private memory — as well as historical amnesia — in modern-day Vietnam. All images are by Yến Dương and are reproduced here with her permission.
Đỉnh Q Lê (b. 1968, Hà Tiên, d. 2024, HCMC) was a Vietnamese-American multimedia artist. As a child, he left Vietnam as a refugee, only to return in his 20s and base himself primarily in Ho Chi Minh City. He was widely considered a leading Vietnamese artist of his generation. He was co-founder of the non-profit art space Sàn Art, and he was a key benefactor of the local art scene. Đỉnh was also an avid collector of Vietnamese antiquities, primarily ceramics, which is discussed in this interview.
Đạt Vũ (b.1991, HCMC) is a Ho Chi Minh City-based photo artist. His series, A Thousand Fish Turn Into Guan Yin, completed between 2016-17, is a reflection on fluidity, transformation, and his Catholic-Buddhist upbringing. All images are by Đạt Vũ and are reproduced here with his permission.
Duy-Phương Lê Nguyễn (b.1984, Long An) is a Vietnamese photographer based between Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi. His projects are often long-term, research intensive, and oriented to social issues. Mirages (2017-2022) is a series of photos of posters and panels found on construction sites across Vietnam. Travelling the country by motorcycle, working primarily at night, Duy-Phương Lê Nguyễn reframed these dreamlike renderings. All works shown are by Duy-Phương Lê Nguyễn and are reproduced here with his permission.
Sereyrath Mech (b. 1993, Phnom Penh) is an artist working with still and moving images, based in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. In this series, When the Sun Reaches the River, Sereyrath uses an infrared camera to explore displacement and environmental issues relating to the construction of the Lower Se San 2 Dam, and the subsequent submergence of Kbal Romeas and Sre Pok villages.
Sai (b. 1991, Shan State) is a Burmese photographer and multi-media artist living in exile. After the 2021 Myanmar coup, Sai’s father — a state minister — was abducted by the military junta. Trails of Absence was photographed in secret inside the compound where Sai’s mother is held under house arrest. Sai escaped the country and is advocating for the release of his father and for other political prisoners in Myanmar. This work has been shown in exhibitions around Europe and Asia, and is comprised of two variations of the same series: images have been printed onto wallpaper which have been stuck to gallery walls, or printed onto textiles with appliqué using fragments of cloth from Burmese political prisoners. Images, statements, and explanatory texts are by Sai and are reproduced here with his permission.
Robit Pen (b. 1991, Battambang) is a painter based in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. His colorful, often surrealistic work contends with his country’s social and political past, present, and future. This booklet features a studio visit and interview with the artist from 2019. He discusses his father’s painting career, alongside his own. This booklet is the first in a series of three studio visits and interviews featuring Robit Pen; the others, from 2022 and 2025, are published separately.