Trong Gia Nguyen (Vietnamese-American, 1971) is a writer, curator, and designer living and working between Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam and Brussels, Belgium. His diverse body of works examines the fragility of personal history and structures of power in their myriad forms. Regularly employing humor while at other times engaging sober reflection, Trong’s work elevates the condition of doubt as it reveals and disrupts the undercarriage of our most trusted spaces – domestic, cultural, political, and economical.
His scope of production includes everything from painting, to installation, film, sculpture, performances, web-based projects, and iPhone applications. Crossing over into design and fashion, he has collaborated with brands such as LA Loop, Be&D, Lacoste, and Valerie Barkowski.
Trong has exhibited in galleries and museums internationally, including Galerie Quynh (Ho Chi Minh City), La Patinoire Royale (Brussels), NON (Berlin), The Private Museum (Singapore), and Orange County Museum of Art (California), etc. His works are represented in notable private and public collections including Cornell Museum of Fine Arts, 21st Century Hotels, Antwerp Museum of Contemporary Art, Servais Family Collection, Foundation CAB, and many others.
Trong has received grants and residencies from Villa Empain / Boghossian Foundation (Brussels, Belgium), the Museum of Arts & Design (NY), Artist in Residence in the Everglades (FL), Gate 27 (Istanbul, Turkey), LegalArt Miami (FL), LMCC (NY), FabLab (CA), Harvestworks Digital Media Center (NY), Bronx Museum of the Arts (NY), Puffin Foundation (NJ), among others.
As a curator, Trong has organized over 25 exhibitions at museums and galleries, including Boca Raton Museum of Art, Freies Museum Berlin, Residency Unlimited, Zabriskie Gallery, and many others. From 2005-07 he founded and directed New General Catalog, a gallery in Brooklyn that was devoted to showing experimental work by emerging and underserved artists. Upon moving to Ho Chi Minh City in 2015, he curated the inaugural exhibition at Vietnam’s first contemporary art center, The Factory.
Trong has served on the advisory boards of organizations that include Fashion in Film Festival, Elizabeth Foundation for the Arts, and Florence Artist in Residence (FAiR). He has also guest-lectured and served on discussion panels at Art Stage Singapore, CUE Foundation (New York, USA), School of Visual Arts (New York, USA), Columbia University (New York, USA), Catalyst Foundation (Washington, DC, USA), Reykjavik Art Academy (Iceland), Riga Center for Contemporary Art (Latvia), Goethe Institut (Hanoi, Vietnam), and many others.
Trong is currently working on a theater production about his family’s refugee story, titled The Leavers.
EDUCATION
1998 Master of Fine Arts in Painting, University of South Florida, Tampa, Florida, USA 1995 Bachelor of Fine Arts in Painting, Minor in Art History, University of Central Florida,
Orlando, Florida, USA
SOLO / COLLABORATIVE EXHIBITIONS
2023 Songs of Singularity, Galerie Quynh, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam 2022 In Perpetuity, La Patinoire Royale, Brussels, Belgium
2021 Foibles of a Reconstruction, NON Berlin, Berlin, Germany
Anthology for Beginners, La Patinoire Royale, Brussels, Belgium 2019 This House Is Falling, La Patinoire Royale, Brussels, Belgium 2018 Executive Orders, Richard Koh Fine Art, Bangkok, Thailand
My Myopia, Cornell Museum of Fine Arts, Orlando, FL, USA
Dogg Days, Jack Headley Gallery at California State University, Chico, CA, USA The Last State, Richard Koh Projects, Bangkok, Thailand
2016 Les Bananes, L’Espace, Hanoi, Vietnam 2015 Pulse Miami, mc2 gallery, Miami, FL, USA
1972-2015: Works by Hoang Duong Cam and Trong Gia Nguyen, Galerie Quynh, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam
Asia Now, Galerie Quynh, Espace Pierre Cardin, Paris, France
The Leavers, Galerie Quynh, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam 2014 Multiple Singularities, Hotel Particulier, New York, NY, USA 2013 Mann Cave, Art Virus, Frankfurt, Germany
2012 Cracked Haus, QF Gallery, East Hampton, NY, USA
Video Works, CoWorker Projects, New York, NY, USA
2011 Domestic God____, Coleman Burke Gallery, New York, NY, USA
One, Only, You, LegalArt at Lord’s South Beach, Miami Beach, Florida, USA 2010 Neo-Theo, Galerie ZK, Berlin, Germany
Signature Series, 7.9 cm, Stanley Picker Gallery, Kingston-on-Thames, England, UK 2009 Food for Thought, Galerie Quynh, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam
2008 The Most Dangerous Show on Earth, Fruit & Flower Deli, New York, NY, USA
2007 Ready, Set, Sail!, Super Bien Greenhouse for Contemporary Art, Berlin, Germany
All You Need Is Love, Articule, Montreal, Canada
Art Hijack Inauguration, Monkeytown, Brooklyn, NY, USA
2006 All You Need Is Love, Paloma/New General Catalog, Brooklyn, NY, USA
Humanitarians Not Heroes (Five-Alive), Tenri Cultural Institute, New York, NY, USA 2005 L’Agent des trois, Covivant Gallery, Tampa, Florida, USA
The Art Collection of Rick Haatj, Art L.A., Santa Monica Civic Auditorium, Santa Monica, CA, USA 2004 A Private View: The Art Collection of Rick Haatj, The Roger Smith Hotel, New York,
NY, USA
Humanitarians Not Heroes: shäp, The Lab Gallery, New York, NY, USA
2003 Fading Photograph, La Lunchonette, New York, NY, USA 1998 Sighing Reveille, USF Teaching Gallery, Tampa, Florida, USA
GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2025 The Archive Body, Galerie Quynh, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam Vietnam Open Doors, 11:11, Paris, France
21 Years of Galerie Quynh, curated by Thai Ha, Galerie Quynh, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam
Selections from the Richard Koh Collection, Private Museum, Singapore 2024 Transposition, Gallery Rhim22, Seoul, Korea
Delen’s, Brussels, Belgium
2023 {Re}HAPPENING, Black Mountain College Museum + Arts Center, Black Mountain, NC, USA
Neverwhere, Galerie Quynh, Ho Chi Minh City, Vetnam 2022 Notes on Paper, Galerie Quynh, Ho Chi Minh City, Vetnam
2021 familiar, Galerie Quynh, Ho Chi Minh City, Vetnam
2020 I Am…, curated by Dominick Lombardi, Morean Arts Center, St. Petersburg, FL, USA 2019 in between days, Galerie Quynh, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam
Where the Sea Remembers, The Mistake Room, Los Angeles, CA, USA
There’ll Never Be a Door. You Are Inside: Works from the Teixeira de Freitas Collection, curated by
Luiza Teixeira de Freitas, Santander Art Gallery, Madrid, Spain Truth or Dare: A Reality Show, 21c Museum Hotel, Cincinnati, OH, USA Gun Shy, Artspace1616, Sacramento, CA, USA
2018 Alluvium, Galerie Quynh, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam
2017 California Pacific Triennial: Building As Ever, Orange County Museum of Art, Newport Beach, CA, USA
The Foliage, Vincom Center for Contemporary Art, Hanoi, Vietnam
Muse in the Mews, Solomon Contemporary at The Printing House, New York, NY, USA Truth or Dare: A Reality Show, 21c Museum Hotel, Nashville, TN, USA
2016 AIA Vietnam Eye, Casa Italia, Hanoi, Vietnam Le Salon, Snap!, Orlando, FL, USA
2015 The Others, mc2 gallery, Piazzale Valdo Fusi, Torino, Italy olio. v2, Galerie Quynh, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam
2014 Onward and Upward, Galerie Quynh, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam Flight, ArtCenter South Florida, Miami, FL, USA
Public Private, Spring/Break, New York, NY, USA
2013 The Written Word, John A. Day Gallery, University of South Dakota, Vermillion, SD, USA
#PseudoReal, Charles Bank Gallery, New York, NY, USA
Sharper Image II, Ethan Cohen Fine Art, Provincetown, MA, USA
Sharper Image, Ethan Cohen Fine Art, New York, NY, USA
Eye on the Storm, Housatonic Museum of Art, Bridgeport, CT; Bob Rauschenberg Gallery, Fort Myers,
FL, USA
The Book Lovers, EFA Project Space, New York, NY, USA
Every Which Way But Loose, artMRKT Hamptons, Southampton, NY
The Book Lovers, Museum of Contemporary Art, Antwerp, Antwerp, Belgium
2012 George Hearts Maria, heliumcowboy artspace, Hamburg, Germany Leisure Work, Wassaic Project, Wassaic, NY, USA
VENTI D’ORIENTE, mc2 Gallery, Milan, Italy
ART STAYS 2012, 10th Festival of Contemporary Art, Ptuj, Slovenija 2011 This House is Blessed, Fountainhead, Miami, Florida, USA
Telefone Sem Fio: Word-Things of Augusto de Campos Revisited, EFA Project Space, New York, NY, USA A Strange Attraction to the Beautiful and Dreadful, Hendershot Gallery, New York, NY, USA
Vienna Fair, Waterside Contemporary, Vienna, Austria
2010 Pulse Miami, Charlie James Gallery, Miami, Florida, USA Murmur, Waterside Project Space, London, England
ART Hong Kong 10, Galerie Quynh, Hong Kong
The Sixth Borough, curated by No Longer Empty, Governors Island, New York, NY, USA
Satellites in the Night, Freies Museum Berlin, Berlin, Germany
Knock Knock Who’s There? That Joke Isn’t Funny Anymore, Fred Torres Collaborations, New York, NY, USA Power to the Brand, curated by Bosko Boskovic, Museum of Contemporary Art of Republic Srpska,
Banja Luka, Republic Srpska Volta NY, New York, NY, USA
2009 Being Between, Dvorak Contemporary, Prague, Czech Republic Dis/Believer, Columbia College, Chicago, Illinois, USA
Vietnam Mon Amour, mc2 Gallery, Milan, Italy
Marcel Duchamp: The Art of Chess, Francis Naumann Fine Art, New York, NY, USA
PTA Bake Sale and Spaghetti Dinner, Koelsch Gallery, Houston, Texas, USA
Broken Tales, curated by Rainer Ganahl, Shanghai Theatre Academy, Shanghai, China
No Title, EXHIBITION 211, curated by Nathalie Angles, New York, NY, USA
Responding to Cuba, Maloney Art Gallery, College of Saint Elizabeth, Morristown, New Jersey, USA Volta NY, New York, NY, USA
Paper Exhibition, curated by Raimundas Malasauskas, Artists Space, New York, NY, USA
2008 Once Upon a Time, curated by Chen Tamir and Jean Barberis, ISE Foundation, New York, NY, USA
The DUMBO Debates for openhouseNewYork, curated by Chen Tamir, Brooklyn Bridge, New York, NY, USA Sequences Real Time Festival, Dwarf Gallery, Reykjavik, Iceland
I’ll Be Your Mirror…So You Can Break it Into Shards, Heist Gallery, New York, NY, USA From Brooklyn with Love, Parker’s Box, Brooklyn, NY, USA
Skipping the Page, curated by Graham Parker, Center for Book Arts, New York, NY, USA
2007 In Pursuit: Art on Dating, curated by Emma Brasó, ISE Foundation, New York, NY, USA CONFLUX Festival, New General Catalog, Brooklyn, NY, USA
The Dotted Line, curated by Colby Chamberlain, Rotunda Gallery, Brooklyn, NY, USA
Show Your I.D., HQ, Brooklyn, NY, USA
DUMBO Arts Festival, curated by Aniko Erdosi, Hungarian Cultural Center, Brooklyn, NY, USA Secret Clubhouse, Flux Factory, Long Island City, NY, USA
From Our Living Room to Yours, curated by Daria Brit-Shapiro, Goff + Rosenthal Gallery, Berlin,
Germany
2006 Sequences Real Time Festival, Safn Foundation, Reykjavik, Iceland
9th Havana Biennial, Fortress of the Three Kings, Havana, Cuba
Detained, Asian American Arts Center, New York, NY, USA
2005 Performa 05: The Performance Biennial, Artists Space, New York, NY, USA
Frisbee Fair, Miami, Florida, USA
Float, curated by Sara Resiman, Socrates Sculpture Park, Long Island City, NY, USA
US/UK, Three Colts Gallery, London, England, UK
Waterways, collateral project of the 2005 Istanbul Biennial, curated by Renee Vara, Istanbul, Turkey Style Sessions, curated by William Quigley, MILK Gallery, New York, NY, USA
2004 The Holiday Shopping Show III, Wallspace Gallery, New York, NY, USA Night of a Thousand Drawings, Artists Space, New York, NY, USA
NOW: Contemporary Asian American Artists, curated by Katherine Chan for the Asian Americans for Equality 30th Anniversary Gala, Empire State Ballroom, Grand Hyatt, New York, NY, USA
Bush-Whack!, George Adams Gallery, New York, NY, USA
The Peekskill Project, curated by Alison Levy, Peekskill, NY, USA
Doing Business: Dysfunctional Corporate Culture, curated by Barry Rosenberg, University of Connecticut Contemporary Art Galleries, Storrs/Stamford, Connecticut, USA
2003 Objects for Joseph Cornell, ZieherSmith Gallery, New York, NY, USA The Holiday Shopping Show II, Wallspace Gallery, New York, NY, USA
AIM 23: Artists in the Marketplace, Bronx Museum of the Arts, Bronx, NY, USA 150 Artists Make 150 Shirts, Daniel Silverstein Gallery, New York, NY, USA
100 $mack$, Covivant Gallery, Tampa, Florida, USA
Iron On!, Nexus Gallery, Philadelphia, PA, USA
2002 The Brewster Project: New York Stories, curated by Paul Laster, Brewster, NY, USA 2001 Ebay Inventory Project on DriveDrive.Com.
1998 7 x 7, Deland Museum of Art, Deland, Florida, USA
1997 Three Deep, Centre Gallery, Tampa, Florida, USA
FILMOGRAPHY
2021 The Last Letter Writer, Produced and directed by Trong Gia Nguyen and David Raymond, 52 minutes. Premiered in 2023 at Black Mountain College Museum + Arts Center, Black Mountain, NC, USA
PERFORMANCES
2026 Forthcoming: The Leavers
2018 Nhà (Home), scenography for dance performance by Kerman/Sebastien Ly. Premiered in Vietnam
and traveled to France
2017 Exil, animation for theater production by Celine Alexandre and Linh Rateau. Premiered in Vietnam
and traveled to Hong Kong.
2007 Ready, Set, Sail!, Superbien Greenhouse for Contemporary Art, Berlin, Germany
All You Need Is Love, Articule, Montreal, Canada
All You’ll Need Is Love, ISE Foundation/L’Orange Bleu, New York, NY, USA Art Hijack Inauguration, Monkeytown, Brooklyn, NY, USA
2006 All You Need Is Love, Paloma/New General Catalog, Brooklyn, NY, USA 2004 The Art Collection of Rick Haatj, The Roger Smith Hotel, New York, NY, USA
CURATED EXHIBITIONS
2016 TechNoPhobe, The Factory Contemporary Art Center, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam 2014 The All Florida Show, Boca Raton Museum of Art, Boca Raton, FL, USA
2012 Lightness, Being, Gallery Brooklyn, Brooklyn, NY, USA 2011 ROY G BIV, Waterhouse & Dodd, New York, NY, USA
Land Locked, Artslant booth, Aqua Hotel, Miami Beach, Florida, USA 2010 Hi Tide, Artslant booth, Aqua Art Fair, Miami, Florida, USA
Room without a View. Freies Museum, Berlin, Germany
2009 Eye on the Prize. ArtSlant booth, Fountain NY Art Fair, New York, NY, USA
Never Late than Better, EFA Project Space, New York, NY, USA 2007 The Guy Debord Show, New General Catalog, Brooklyn, NY, USA
Hungarian Flag Football, Hungarian Cultural Center and DUMBO Arts Festival, Brooklyn, NY, USA By Invitation Only, Kinz, Tillou, and Feigen Gallery, New York, NY, USA
HostCreatures: Nicole Schuck and Anne Katrin Stork, New General Catalog, Brooklyn, NY, USA Darri Lorenzen: Round Here, New General Catalog, Brooklyn, NY, USA
2006 Jason Irwin: An Observing List of “Not-Found” Objects, New General Catalog, Brooklyn, NY, USA Seasons in the Sun: Fall with Jim Holyoak, New General Catalog, Brooklyn, NY, USA
Seasons in the Sun: Summer with Fred Thomas and Soma Wingelaar, New General Catalog, Brooklyn,
NY, USA
The Thief, the Cook, His Wife, Her Lover, and Their Dinner Guests, New General Catalog, Brooklyn, NY, USA
2005 Doing Lines: Paul de Guzman and Christian Nguyen, New General Catalog, Brooklyn, NY, USA The One, New General Catalog, Brooklyn, NY, USA
Devil’s Devil’s Nite!, Lab Gallery, New York, NY, USA
Eleven Nguyens and the Thirty Year Loss, PH Gallery, New York, NY, USA 2004 amBush!, Van Brunt Gallery, New York, NY, USA
GenArt: Ignite., Puck Building, New York, NY, USA
EA50, HEREArt, New York, NY, USA
From New York with Love, Covivant Gallery, Tampa, Florida, USA Nails Nails Nails, Broadway Spa, New York, NY, USA
2003 Miraculous: Contemporary Exvotos Paintings, chezTGN, Brooklyn, NY, USA Free Association: 1: Arnis Balcus, chezTGN, Brooklyn, NY, USA
Take Out, Zabriskie Gallery, New York, NY, USA
2002 Who? Me? Role Play in Self-Portrait Photography, Zabriskie Gallery, New York, NY, USA
2000 The Devil Made Me Do It, Covivant Gallery, Tampa, Florida
1998 art in the service of politics, POLITICS IN THE SERVICE OF ART, Gallery at 145, St. Petersburg, Florida, USA
PUBLIC COLLECTIONS
21c Museum Hotels, Louisville, KY, USA
CAB Foundation, Brussels, Belgium
Cornell Museum of Fine Arts, Orlando, FL, USA
Dvorak Sec Contemporary, Prague, Czech Republic
Joan Flasch Artists’ Book Collection, School of the Art Institute of Chicago, IL, USA Museum of Contemporary Art, Antwerp, Belgium
Post-Vidai, Vietnam and Switzerland
Servais Family Collection, Brussels, Belgium University of Technology Sydney, Sydney, Australia
Fairs
