The artwork features a clear acrylic box filled with a large collection of wooden coffee sticks or stirrers. The box is labeled "On the Road" and lists the authors "Kerouac, Jack" and "Date Due," suggesting a connection to the famous Beat Generation writer Jack Kerouac and his seminal work "On the Road." The simple, minimalist composition and use of mundane, everyday objects highlights the artist's focus on examining themes of literature, travel, and the ordinary as extraordinary. The work likely comments on the intersection of popular culture, literary history, and the everyday experiences that inspire great works of art. ...
“My work examines structures of power in their myriad forms, making attempt to scrutinize the soft foundation upon which contemporary life plays out, often behind the façade of fairness, sincerity, security, tradition, and civility.”
Often employing humor while at other times engaging sober reflection, Trong Gia Nguyen’s work elevates the condition of doubt and reveals the power structures behind our most trusted institutions and beliefs as they relate to the dynamics of domesticity, culture, politics, and economy. Self-reflexive by nature, Nguyen’s methods question the status quo through subtle modes of subversion and interruption. On the flipside, it is an aesthetically pessimistic vantage point, one of retreat that espouses a dimension of decadence, at the expense of charlatanism. Whether taking the form of sculpture, painting, iPhone applications, film, or web-based performance actions, Nguyen’s conceptual approach walks the fine line between joy and sorrow, subtlety and blatancy, night and light, and beauty and beast. ...
Recognized as Vietnam’s leading contemporary art gallery, Galerie Quynh has been promoting contemporary art practice in the country for over two decades. The gallery is known internationally for its consistently focused programming and educational initiatives. Working with a select group of emerging, mid-career and established Vietnamese artists, the gallery also exhibits the work of distinguished artists from around the world. In keeping with its mission to develop a sustainable ecosystem for the arts in Vietnam, the gallery collaborates with artists, curators, museums and art spaces locally and internationally to organize talks and lectures as well as to produce publications in English and Vietnamese. In May 2014 the gallery founded the not-for-profit educational initiative Sao La directed by artists Tung Mai and Nguyen Kim To Lan. Sao La has since evolved into an independent artist collective spearheaded by To Lan and Dalat-based artist Nguyen Duc Dat. In summer 2020 with support from the Goethe-Institut, the gallery launched the not-for-profit CáRô, an educational initiative that provides art education for students aged 13 – 18 who show demonstrative interest in the arts. ...
