Thảo Nguyên Phan is a visual multimedia artist whose practice encompasses painting, film-making and installation. She currently lives and works in Ho Chi Minh City and has exhibited widely in Vietnam and abroad..Drawing inspiration from both official and unofficial histories, Thảo Nguyên Phan draws on her country's turbulent past while observing ambiguous issues in social convention, history and tradition. She has exhibited in solo and group exhibitions in Vietnam and abroad, at many public institutions including the Factory Contemporary Art Centre, Ho Chi Minh City; Nha San Collective, Hanoi; Rockbund Art Museum, Shanghai; Times Art Center in Berlin, Timișoara; and The Mistake Room, Los Angeles, CA. Phan is a 2018 recipient of the Han Nefkens Foundation – LOOP Barcelona Video Art Production Award. She was also one of four finalists for the Hugo Boss Asia Art Award 2019 and was awarded a 2016-2017 Rolex Protégée, mentored by internationally acclaimed, New York-based, performance and video artistJoan Jonas. Phan is also a founding member of Art Labor with artist Trương Công Tùng and curator Arlette Quỳnh-Anh Trần, a cross-disciplinary collective that develops art projects with the aim to benefit the local community. In collaboration with independent art space Sàn Art in Ho Chi Minh, Art Labor hosts educational workshops that explore visual arts and the life sciences, which examine shared cultural histories in the region through guest lectures and an artist-in-residency program.
Phan is a 2018 recipient of the Han Nefkens Foundation – LOOP Barcelona Video Art Production Award. The Han Nefkens Foundation has supported the production and presentation of Becoming Alluvium, an installation of video and painting, to be shown at the Fundació Joan Miró, Barcelona, WIELS Contemporary Art Centre, Brussels, and Chisenhale Gallery, London. She was also one of four finalists for the Hugo Boss Asia Art Award 2019, alongside Eisa Jocson, Hao Jingban and Hsu Che-Yu, and was a 2016-2017 Rolex Protégée for Visual Arts, which offered a 30-day mentor-ship by seminal artist Joan Jonas. Phan was one of the four special mentions of the Sharjah Biennale 14 prize, Sharjah, UAE, in 2019. In 2018, she was awarded the Grand Prize, APB Foundation Signature Art Prize, National Museum of Singapore, organized by Singapore Art Museum, Singapore. Further awards and residencies include NTU CCA Residency, NTU Center for Contemporary Art, Singapore, 2017; Visual Arts Workshop in Botín Foundation, lead by Joan Jonas, Santander, Spain, 2016; CDEF Grant, 2014; San Art Laboratory Artist in Residency program, San Art, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, 2013; Incentive Scholarship, School of the Art Institute of Chicago and a nomination for the Dedalus foundation grant, in 2012; Incentive Scholarship, School of the Art Institute of Chicago and first place, general category, Union League Civic & Arts foundation, Chicago in 2011; and was awarded the Presidential Scholarship at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 2012.
Exhibitions
Thảo Nguyên Phan’s solo exhibitions include "", Han Nefkens Art Foundation and WIELS, Contemporary Art Centre, Brussels, Belgium, "", Han Nefkens Art Foundation - Loop Barcelona video art award, Fundació Joan Miró, Barcelona, Spain, "", Rolex Arts Weekend, Gemäldegalerie, Berlin, Germany and "", Curated by Zoe Butt, the Factory Contemporary Art Centre, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam and Nha San Collective, Hanoi, Vietnam. She has exhibited her work at many group exhibitions, including at the Hugo Boss Asia Art Award 2019, Rockbund Art Museum, Shanghai, China; "Neither Black / Red / Yellow Nor Woman", at the Times Art Center Berlin, the Art Encounters Biennial 2019, Timișoara, Romania; the Lyon Biennale, "", in Lyon, France ; "", The Mistake Room, Los Angeles, USA ; , “Leaving the Echo Chamber” in “”, curated by Zoe Butt. Her work has been included in "", Edouard Malingue gallery, Hong Kong ; "", at Dhaka Art Summit, Bangladesh, Para Site, Hong Kong and and "", Jendela visual arts space, Esplanade, Singapore. In 2016, she exhibited in "", an online exhibition of moving images, sponsored by San Art and the Prince Claus fund, "", Betonsalon, Paris, France and "Workshop" at Foundation Botin, Santander, Spain. In 2015, her works were included in "Un-romantic Memories", curated by Kim Jihye, Lotus Gallery, Gyeonggi-do, in Korea, and "Concept Context Contestation", Art and the Collective in South East Asia, travelling exhibition, Goethe Institut, Hanoi, Vietnam. in 2014, Phan contributed to "Tầm Tã", curated by Trần Lương, Ha Noi Fine Arts University Museum, Hanoi, Vietnam, "", Institute of Contemporary Arts Singapore, curated by Bala Starr and Khairuddin Hori, Singapore, "Mekong Platform", , curated by Loredana Paracciani, Marina Bay Sands, Singapore, "Vietnam Now: Changing Society", at the Canvas International Art, Amsterdam, and "NhaSan 15+", at NhaSan Studio, Hanoi, Vietnam. In 2013 she exhibited for the first time in "Concept Context Contestation", Art and the Collective in South East Asia, Bangkok Culture Centre, Bangkok, Thailand, as well as "", at the Muong Ethnology museum, Hoa Binh, Vietnam, "", at San Art, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, the New Work Show, at Sullivan Galleries, School of the Art Institute of Chicago, USA and "The Fifth Wall", also at Sullivan Galleries, School of the Art Institute of Chicago, USA. In 2012, Phan exhibited at "Ở, Recent Works by Artists of Vietnamese Heritage", at Basespace gallery, School of the Art Institute of Chicago, USA, RIAP International Performance Art Festival, Quebec, Canada, and "", a travelling exhibition to Vietnam, Thailand, Cambodia, Indonesia and Philippines, organized by the Goethe Institute, Hanoi, Vietnam. She has also exhibited at ‘Open Edit’ Mobile library, in collaboration with Truong Cong Tung, San Art and Asia Art Archive, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, "Naptime Noise", L’usine gallery, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, "Intersection Vietnam", new works form North and South, Valentine Willie Fine Art, Singapore and Malaysia, "Two Coats of Paint", Praxis Space, Lasalle College of the Arts, Singapore, "Ket Noi", Singapore Art Museum and Post Museum, Singapore, Young Artist Festival, Hanoi, Vietnam and NIPAF International Performance Art Festival, Tokyo, Nagano and Nagoya, Japan.
Publications
Thảo Nguyên Phan’s first monograph Monsoon Melody was co-published by the exhibition partners, the Han Nefkens Foundation and Mousse Publishing. This publication was edited with the support of Galerie Zink Waldkirchen, with texts by Zoë Gray, Sam I-Shan, Lila Matsumoto, Han Nefkens, Pamela Nguyen Corey, Thảo Nguyên Phan, Hilde Teerlinck and Thomas D. Trummer. The book mirrors Phan's interest in philosophy and literature, featuring ethereal stills from her films and texts that provide insight into her latest work. Phan has also released an artist book, Thảo Nguyên Phan: Voyages de Rhodes, which replicates the watercolors Phan painted directly onto the pages of Jesuit Missionary Alexandre de Rhodes' book, which chronicles his initial discoveries in Vietnam, and produced an exhibition catalogue for her exhibition "Poetic Amnesia"
