Contemporary Vietnamese Visual Artists
The KIRTI booklet collection brings together a wide range of contemporary Vietnamese visual practitioners - painters, sculptors, multimedia artists, photo artists, documentary photographers, and photojournalists - through intimate, reflective conversations centered not simply on their artworks, but on the conditions, impulses, and personal philosophies that make those works possible.
Dung Quoc Nguyen
Dung Quoc Nguyen

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.

Phuong Duc
Phuong Duc

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 Nguyen Anh
Mai Nguyen Anh

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.

Yen Duong
Yen Duong

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.

Dinh Q. Le
Dinh Q. Le

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.

Dat Vu
Dat Vu

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-Phuong Le Nguyen
Duy-Phuong Le Nguyen

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.

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