Phuong Nguyen

Overview

Phuong Nguyen, (b.1992 Tkaronto (Toronto)),  is a visual artist working in representational oil painting and experimental weaving. Nguyen uses these mediums to explore themes of Ornamentalism and the relationship between exoticism and violence by referencing the aesthetics and the history of Chinoiserie and South East Asian/Vietnamese femininity.  


Nguyen’s work was recently recognized by the CIBC C2 Art Program 2024 (as a finalist), and by the Canada Council for the Arts (2025) where she won both the Travel, and the Visual Artist Creation Grant. Nguyen was featured in the solo exhibition No Still Waters (NYC, USA, 2026), She is An Object of Beauty (Atlanta, USA, 2025), and in The Wind Return To The Soil (Montreal, Canada, 2023). In 2025, Nguyen was selected for the following Canadian group exhibitions: Interwoven Identities (at the Asian Arts and Cultural Trust), A Familiar Distance (at Tian Contemporain), and Pattern and Motif (at Design TO Festival @ Gladstone Hotel). Nguyen also contributed to art fairs in group shows such as Murmurs: A Gathering of Modern and Contemporary Arts from Vietnam (Shanghai, China, 2025), and for both Tian Contemporain and SSEW Projects at Art Toronto (Toronto, Canada, 2025). Nguyen holds a BFA from OCAD University (2014). 

Exhibitions