Trang Nguyen Acrylic Painting "Experiencing Adolescence Today," 2020

Item Details

Trang Nguyen
Experiencing Adolescence Today, 2020
Acrylic painting on canvas
Unsigned

Trang Nguyen is an Asian-American student who immigrated from Saigon City at the age of seven. She was encouraged by her mother to pursue art, and has been creating art since the age of five. She distinctly remembers drawing on her neighbors’ walls in Vietnam, which she believes inspired them to adopt dogs. For Nguyen, art is an instrument of personal self expression, and explains that her work is inspired by personal experiences, and fleeting yet impactful moments. This particular work is based on a photograph Nguyen shot while paddling a duck boat with her cousin, which holds a nostalgic place for her in Vietnam. When discussing the duck boat ride, Nguyen recalls a particular childhood memory: ‘My mom told me stories of how much of a picky eater I was and how I would keep my mouth shut from eating. To feed me, my mom would hop on her motorcycle and drive me to the duck boat ride just to open my mouth. The memories that I have of this amusement park is filled with awe and sadness; I realized that everything was advancing, yet I’m still stuck in the past. Vietnam, from what I remembered, was dirt roads and broken buildings, but to see it all improved so fast made me feel selfish and hatred at the fact that I wasn’t there to see it happen.’

Condition

- negligible wear to edges of canvas; staining to the sides of canvas; minor staining to the lower left of the composition.

Dimensions

Item #

ITMA0005ZE