What’s Behind the Folds of Kenny Nguyen’s Art?
The pushpins may hold his work in place, but Kenny Nguyen’s art refuses to stay still, just like the story it tells. Rooted in reinvention and reflection, this artist uses his craft to navigate the complexities of cultural integration.
Nguyen’s path to become an artist was influenced by his move to America. The adjustment to a new country was challenging, particularly with a language barrier. Art became his form of communication, allowing him to express experiences and emotions that words could not. His background in fashion design, particularly with his familiarity with textiles, played a pivotal role in shaping his artistic practice.
Nguyen’s signature works are what he calls “deconstructed paintings” — dimensional, mixed-media creations that blend painting and sculpture. His process begins with silk, a material rich in cultural significance in Vietnam. Tearing the fabric into hundreds of strips, Nguyen dips each piece in acrylic paint and adheres them to raw canvas. Through layering, sanding, sewing, and weaving, he transforms these elements into sculptural forms that are both structured and fluid.
These works are extraordinary for their versatility. Mounted on the wall with pushpins, these art pieces can be stretched flat like traditional paintings or draped and folded into dynamic shapes. The flexibility allows Nguyen to reconfigure his compositions, mirroring the fluid and ever-changing nature of identity.
For Nguyen, silk is more than a medium; it’s a tie between his Vietnamese heritage and American experiences. Initially drawn to the material for its elegance and familiarity, Nguyen’s transformation of silk has fused it with deeper meaning. By cutting and reconstructing a fabric traditionally associated with beauty and status, he maneuvers the tension between preservation and reinvention—an experience that parallels his cultural journey.
The physicality of Nguyen’s art-making process adds another layer of meaning. Working on the floor of his studio, this labor-intensive process results in multilayered work, both literally and metaphorically.
Shaped by his experience as a Vietnamese immigrant in America, his pieces reflect the struggles of redefining himself. By blending cultural influences with abstraction, his work captures the tension between belonging and cultural specificity. Patterns of absence and in-between spaces evoke feelings of emptiness and alienation, while layers of paint – sometimes concealed, symbolize untold stories and hidden histories. His pieces explore transformation and impermanence with delicate fabric that evolves with each installation. For Nguyen, silk represents a second skin, embodying the process of rebuilding identity and preserving memories.
In Nguyen’s hands, silk becomes a metaphor for life’s complexities—fragile yet resilient, traditional yet transformative. His work invites us to explore the beauty of change and the power of art to bridge the spaces between past and present, self and culture.
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Image at top of post by Rusty Williams courtesy of Luxe Interiors + Design.
