Akeroyd Collection
Artists
Tuan Andrew Nguyen
b. 1976 Sài Gòn, Vietnam; lives and works in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam.
Tuan Andrew Nguyen’s works explore themes of identity, history, migration, and cultural narratives. Through diverse mediums, including photography, video, sculpture, and installation, he will often incorporate elements of historical research into his artworks, weaving personal and collective narratives to shed light on marginalised histories and the complexities of cultural identity. The work explores the power of storytelling through community engagement, tapping into inherited histories and counter-memory. Nguyen extracts and re-works colonial histories, supernaturalisms and dominant, canonical accounts of the past into imaginative vignettes. Fact and fiction frequently blur, creating poetic narratives that are both temporal and spatial. With each work challenging prevailing narratives, Nguyen invites viewers to critically examine social structures and power dynamics that they may have previously taken for granted. Nguyen's ability to merge personal experiences with broader socio-political issues means his art acts as a platform for marginalised voices, amplifying stories that have been overlooked or silenced. Through his exploration of history and cultural heritage, he aims to foster dialogue, empathy, and understanding among diverse communities.
Tuan Andrew Nguyen's recent solo exhibitions include Our Ghosts Live in the Future, Fundació Joan Miró, Barcelona (2024); The Other Side of Now, Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art Africa, Cape Town (2024); Radiant Remembrance, The New Museum, New York (2023); Unburied Sounds, James Cohan, New York (2022); Tuan Andrew Nguyen: The Boat People, Chrysler Museum, Richmond, VA (2021); A Dream Of The End At The End Of A Dream: Tuan Andrew Nguyen and Wowy, Galerie Quynh, Saigon (2021); From Saigon to Saigon, Asia Society, New York, NY (2018); The Island, The Mistake Room, Los Angeles, CA (2018); The Island, Paramo, Guadalajara (2017); Trying to Kill Me by Accident, California Institute of the Arts, Valencia (2004). Group exhibitions include the How Did You Come into the World, Hirosaki Museum of Contemporary Art, Hirosaki (2024); Voice Against Reason, Museum MACAN, Jakarta (2023); 12th Berlin Biennale, Berlin, Germany (2022); Manifesta 14 Prishtina, Kosovo (2022); Biennale de Dakar, Dakar, Senegal (2022); STILL ALIVE, Aichi Triennale (2022); ARS22, Museum of Contemporary Art Kiasma, Helsinki (2022); Phantasmapolis: 2021 Asian Art Biennial, National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts, Tapei, (2021); Bodies of Water, The 13th Shanghai Biennale, Power Station of Art, Shanghai, (2020); Manifesta 13 Marseille, Marseille (2020); SOFT POWER, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco, CA (2019); Homeworks, Beirut Biennial, Beirut (2019); Believe, MOCA Toronto (2018); and Whitney Biennial, Whitney Museum, New York, NY (2017). Nguyen is the recipient of numerous rewards, including the 2023 Joan Miró Prize. He is also a founding member of The Propeller Group, an entity that positions itself between a fake advertising company and an art collective. Accolades for the group include the main prize at the 2015 Internationale Kurzfilmtage Winterthur and a Creative Capital Award.
For further information about this artist please click here.
For Tuan Andrew Nguyen's entry on Asia Art Archive's website please click here.
Exhibitions
Shared Skin, Adelaide Contemporary Experimental (ACE), Adelaide, Australia (group)
Time Travelers, Des Moines Art Center, Des Moines, IA, U.S (group)
Prospect.6: the future is present, the harbinger is home, New Orleans, LA, U.S (group)
The Production of Otherness, Foment de les Arts i del Disseny, Barcelona, Spain (group)
How Did You Come into the World, Hirosaki Museum of Contemporary Art, Hirosaki, Japan (group)
Spirit House, Cantor Arts Center, Stanford, CA, U.S (group)
A Spell Against Amnesia, Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh, PA, U.S (group)
We Were Lost in Our Country, Nevada Museum of Art, Reno, NV, U.S (group)
Tongues of Fire, Kunsthall Trondheim, Trondheim, Norway (group)
The Other Side of Now, Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art Africa, Cape Town, South Africa (solo)
The Island, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, DC (solo)
Our Ghosts Live in the Future, Fundació Joan Miró, Barcelona, Spain (solo)
Tuan Andrew Nguyen: Radiant Remembrance, The New Museum, New York, NY, U.S (solo)
It Was What Is Will Be, Marabouparken Konsthall, Sundbyberg, Sweden (solo)
All That We Are Is What We Hold In Our Outstretched Hands, Centre for Contemporary Arts, Glasgow, U.K (solo)
Tuan Andrew Nguyen: The Boat People, Ulrich Museum of Art, Wichita State University, Wichita, U.S (solo)
A Body of Memory (from neurons to the sea), Kunsthall Trondheim, Trondheim, Norway (group)
Picasso: Without Title, La Casa Encendida and the Fundación Almine y Bernard Ruiz-Picasso para el Arte (FABA), curated by Eva Franchi Gilabert, Madrid, Spain, part of Celebración Picasso 1973-2023 (group)
Vietnam in Transition: 1976 - Present, Wende Museum, Culver City, U.S (group)
One Day We’ll Go Home, Emerson Contemporary, Boston, U.S (group)
Voice Against Reason, Museum MACAN, Jakarta, Indonesia (group)
The Measure of the World, RADIUS CCA Delft, Netherlands (group)
STILL ALIVE, Aichi Triennale, Japan (group)
Unburied Sounds, James Cohan, New York, NY, USA (solo)
Our Blue Planet: Global Visions of Water, Seattle Art Museum, Seattle, WA, USA (group)
Tuan Andrew Nguyen: The Boat People, The Contemporary Dayton, Dayton, OH, USA (solo)
Phantasmapolis: 2021 Asian Art Biennial, National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts, Tapei, Taiwan (group)
Tuan Andrew Nguyen: The Boat People, Chrysler Museum, Richmond, VA, USA (solo)
Crossing Currents, A Film Screening curated by Samantha Ozer, Galerie Nordenhake, Mexico City, Mexico (group)
A Dream Of The End At The End Of A Dream: Tuan Andrew Nguyen and Wowy, Galerie Quynh, Saigon, Vietnam (solo)
In Our Best Interests: Afro-Southeast Asian Affinities during a Cold War, Vargas Museum, Manila, Phillippines (group)
The Sounds of Cannons, Familiar Like Sad Refrains / Đại Bác Nghe Quen Như Câu Dạo Buồn, Thyssen-Bornemisza Art Contemporary, Vienna, Austria (group)
Bodies of Water, The 13th Shanghai Biennale, Power Station of Art, Shanghai, China (group)
Tuan Andrew Nguyen, Joslyn Art Museum, Omaha, NE, USA (solo)
Manifesta 13 Marseilles, Marseilles, France (group)
State Affairs #6: Tuan Andrew Nguyen and The Propeller Group, curated by Iliana Fokianaki, State of Concept, Athens, Greece (solo)
The Island, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY, USA (group)
A Lotus in a Sea of Fire, James Cohan, New York, NY, USA (solo)
Rights of Future Generations, Sharjah Architecture Triennial, Sharjah, UAE (group)
Artists Respond: American Art and the Vietnam War, 1965-1975, Minneapolis Institute of Art, Minneapolis, MN, USA (group)
Homeworks, Beirut Biennial, Beirut, Lebanon (group)
Stories from the Farther Shore: Southeast Asian Film, San Jose Museum of Art, San Jose, CA, USA (group)
Leaving the Echo Chamber, Sharjah Biennial, Sharjah, UAE (group)
The Island, Grenfell Art Gallery, University of Newfoundland, Canada (solo)
The Propeller Group, Luckman Gallery, Los Angeles, CA, USA (solo as The Propeller Group)
Scripted Reality, Museo Jumex, Mexico City, Mexico (group)
From Saigon to Saigon, Asia Society, New York, NY, USA (solo)
My Ailing Beliefs, 10 Chancery Lane Gallery, Hong Kong (solo)
In Search of Southeast Asia, M+ Museum, Hong Kong (group)
The Island, The Mistake Room, Los Angeles, CA, USA (solo)
Empty Forest, The Factory Contemporary Arts Centre, Ho Chi Minh City, Viet Nam (solo)
Sunshower Contemporary Arts from Southeast Asia 1980s to Now, Mori Art Museum, Tokyo, Japan (group)
The Island, Paramo, Guadalajara, Mexico (solo)
New Pictures: The Propeller Group Reincarnations, Minneapolis Institute of Art, MN, USA (solo as The Propeller Group)
Whitney Biennial, Whitney Museum, New York, USA (group)
The Propeller Group, Museum Of Contemporary Art, Chicago, IL [traveling to Phoenix Art Museum, AZ, Blaffer Museum of Art, Houston, TX and San Jose Museum of Art, CA], USA (solo as The Propeller Group)
35th International Uppsala Short Film Festival, Uppsala, Sweden (group)
The Living Need Light, The Dead Need Music, James Cohan Gallery, New York, NY, USA (solo as The Propeller Group)
The Propeller Group: Fusion (After a Universe of Collisions), Contemporary Art Museum, St. Louis, MO, USA (solo as The Propeller Group)
All the World’s Futures, 56th Venice Biennale, Venice, Italy (group)
The Living Need Light, The Dead Need Music, Ernest G. Welch School of Art & Design, Georgia State University, Atlanta, GA; travelled to Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh, PA, USA (solo as The Propeller Group)
SeMA Biennale Mediacity Seoul 2014: Ghosts, Spies, and Grandmothers, Seoul Museum of Art, Seoul, Korea (group)
No Country: Contemporary Art for South and Southeast Asia, Guggenheim Museum, New York, NY, USA (group)
Lived, Lives, Will Live!, Lombard Freid Gallery, New York, NY, USA (solo as The Propeller Group)
The Unseen, Guangzhou Triennial, Guangdong Museum of Art, Guangzhou City, China (group)
The History of the Future, 10 Chancery Lane Gallery, Hong Kong (solo as The Propeller Group)
Static Friction, Sàn Art, Ho Chi Minh City, Viet Nam, The New Museum, New York, NY (solo as The Propeller Group)
The Ungovernables, The New Museum, New York, NY, USA (group)
Singapore Biennale Open House, Singapore Art Museum, Singapore (group)
8th Shanghai Biennale, in collaboration with Superflex, Shanghai Art Museum, Shanghai, China (group)
Projects 93, MOMA, New York, NY, USA (group)
Fax & Move on Asia, Para-site, Hong Kong (group)
Your Name Here, Sàn Art @ L’Usine, Ho Chi Minh City, Viet Nam (solo as The Propeller Group)
Requiem for a Wall, Galerie Quynh, Ho Chi Minh City, Viet Nam (solo as The Propeller Group)
Guangzhou Triennial, Guangdong Museum of Art, Guangzhou City, China (group)
Quiet Shiny Words, Gallery Quynh, Ho Chi Minh City, Viet Nam (solo)
Depiction Perversion Repulsion Obsession Subversion, International Film Festival Rotterdam, Netherlands (group)
5th Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art, Queensland Gallery of Modern Art, Brisbane, Australia (group)
While Dodging Fake Bullets in the Dark, Voz Alta Projects, San Diego, CA, USA (solo)
Trying to Kill Me by Accident, California Institute of the Arts, Valencia, CA, USA (solo)
There’s No Place Like Place, One Night Gallery, Tel Aviv, Israel (group)
2025
2024
2023
2022
2021
2020
2019
2018
2017
2016
2015
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2013
2012
2011
2010
2008
2007
2006
2004
Awards
Joan Miró Prize
VIA Art Fund Production | Acquisition Grant
Civitella Raniera Visual Arts Award, New York, U.S
Best Feature Film – The Island, VietFilmFest, Orange County, California, U.S
Signature Art Prize – Finalist, Singapore Art Museum, Singapore
Toby Prize finalist, Museum of Contemporary Art, Cleveland, Ohio, U.S
Cornerstone of the Arts Award, Creative Impact Honoree, San Jose, California, U.S
Grand Prize, Tampere Film Festival, Finland
Gran Prix, Kurzfilmtage Winterthur, Switzerland
Grand Prize, International Film Festival Winterthur, Switzerland
Creative Capital Award, U.S
Muriel Pollia Foundation Award, New York, U.S
Artmatters Grant
2023
2020
2019
2018
2016
2015
2012
2010