WHATCHA THINKIN: TAMMY NGUYEN

Welcome to the first episode of our WHATCHA THINKIN series where we interview culture makers and the movers and shakers shaping the city.

For our first episode we have Vietnamese-American, multimedia artist and independent book publisher, Tammy Nguyen. We managed to catch her ahead of her show, "Necessary Fictions" at The Factory Contemporary Arts Centre in Saigon, as part of the two person show with Ha Ninh Pham. Tammy discusses the show, its inspiration, how living in Vietnam affected her work and more.

Full Interview:

Part 1: Tammy shares with us the inspiration behind the show

Part 2: Tammy discusses how living in Vietnam affected her work and her publishing company Passenger Pigeon Press

Part 3: Tammy gives advice to young artists, talks about what she would be doing if she wasn't doing this.

Biography

Tammy Nguyen (b. 1984, San Francisco, CA) is a multimedia artist working with geopolitics, science, and less known histories.  She received a BFA from the Cooper Union in 2007 and an MFA from the Yale School of Art in 2013. 

From 2007-08, Nguyen was a Fulbright Scholar in Vietnam where she studied traditional lacquer painting. She has exhibited at the Leroy Neiman Center, San-Art, The Fine Arts Museum of Ho Chi Minh City, the Bronx Museum, Wave Hill, Carriage Barns Art Center, Pyramid Atlantic Art Center, and the Inside-Out Museum.

In 2014, Nguyen was awarded the Van Lier Fellowship at Wave Hill as well as inclusion in the Bronx AIM program. In 2015, she was selected for the Scholarship for Advanced Studies by The Center for Book Arts in New York City. Her work has been collected by Yale University, the Philadelphia Museum of Art,  MIT Library, and the Museum of Modern Art Library. 

In Fall 2016, Nguyen founded Passenger Pigeon Press, an independent press that brings the work of scientists, journalists, creative writers, and visual arts together to create politically nuanced projects.   

See more of Tammy's work HERE