I'm a writer, critic, and curator, based between New York City and Ho Chi Minh City. Within my work, I take special interest in the philosophy of art, socialist and anti-colonial aesthetic traditions, avant-garde/militant cinema, etc. Currently, I am the curator at Dogma, a collection and exhibition space in HCMC, and the managing editor of e-flux journal.
I have organized exhibitions and screenings at Wing Luke Museum, Northwest Film Forum, and King Street Station, Gene Siskel Film Center and Chicago Cultural Center. My criticism has appeared in publications such as e-flux journal, Art in America, Artforum, Momus, Mousse, and ArtAsiaPacific. I received an Andy Warhol Arts Writers award, and was a visiting scholar at New York University via the Asia/Pacific/America Institute. Formerly, I was an instructor at Parsons School of Design, The New School.
I'm slowly completing a book of essays, forthcoming with Art Metropole (Toronto, Canada) and Wendy's Subway (Brooklyn, US).
In the non-tonal English language, Nguyá»…n is pronounced like when.
Some Essays, Reviews, and Interviews
The Post-socialist Condition: Nostalgia and Anti-communism in Vietnamese Art, e-flux journal, Oct 2024 *
On P-F-R's Lovers' Wind, Western Front, Sept 2024
On Joyce Joumaa, MOUSSE, March 2024
New Artist Focus: Suneil Sanzgiri, LUX Moving Image, Feb 2024
On Filipa CĂ©sar and SĂłnia Vaz Borges, Momus, Nov 2023 *
Interview with Eduardo Williams, ScreenSlate, Oct 2023
Interview with Mary Helena Clark and Mike Gibisser, Pioneer Works Broadcast, Â Sept 2023
On militant cinema renewed, Art in America, March 2023
On Alexander Markov's Red Africa and Hana Vojáčková's We Love Life, ScreenSlate, Feb 2023
On the pop star Min, Pioneer Works Broadcast, Oct 2022 *
Profile of Zheng Bo, Art in America, Sept 2022 *
Review of Documenta15, Art in America, Aug 2022 *
Interview with Anthony Banua-Simon, Pioneer Works Broadcast, Dec 2021
On Miko Revereza’s No Data Plan, Art in America, Oct 2021
On Ho Rui An’s Student Bodies, Terremoto, Feb 2021
On Luis Camnitzer and liberatory art education, Momus, March 2021 *
Interview with Ana Garcia Jácome with Jacobo Zambrano-Rangel, Terremoto, Dec 2020
On Jueqian Fang and Hongzhe Liang's Perhaps..., Veronica Project Space, Â Aug 2020
Critics’ Pick: Võ An Khánh’s Masked Force, Artforum, April 2020
On the Chicago Architecture Biennial, frieze, Oct 2019
First Look: Liza Sylvestre, Art in America, Sept 2019
Critics’ Pick: Hương Ngô’s In the Shadow of the Future, Artforum, April 2019
On Storme Webber’s Casino: A Palimpsest, Art in America, Dec 2017
In 2021, I guest-curated what flies but never lands?, an exhibition on the scales of time, at Chicago Cultural Center. While in Chicago, I was curatorial assistant for Conversations at the Edge, a film, video, and new media series at Gene Siskel Film Center, organizing programs like This Set of Actions is a Mirror. Before that, in Seattle, I worked as exhibition specialist at Wing Luke Museum in its Chinatown-International District, where exhibitions are created through a collective participatory process.
