Hien Kat Nguyen

Biography

Hien Kat Nguyen was born and raised in Saigon, Vietnam, and is currently living in Richmond, Virginia. They earned their Bachelor of Fine Arts in Sculpture + Extended Media from Virginia Commonwealth University in 2022. Nguyen communicates their experience as a queer 1.5-generation Vietnamese immigrant through sculpture. Using Vietnamese folklore and their multicultural history, they nurture the concepts that have anchored them.

Through woodworking and 3D fabrication techniques, Nguyen creates installations and game-like sculptures that facilitate interaction and use humor to approach taboo subjects surrounding assimilation experiences. They earned over seven VCUarts scholarships and grants between 2020 and 2022. They have attended residencies at Anderson Ranch Arts Center, Snowmass Village, CO; Peters Valley School of Craft, Sandyston, NJ; and the Visual Arts Center of Richmond, Richmond, VA. They were the recipient of the Windgate–Lamar Fellowship from the Center for Craft, Asheville, NC, and the Undergraduate Fellowship in Sculpture from the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond, VA. Nguyen has shown work at the Visual Arts Center of Richmond and the Anderson; Richmond, VA.

Past Exhibition

new.now. (2024)

February 10–March 16, 2024

Hamiltonian Artists’ distinguished 2023–25 fellows Ali Kaeini, Neha Misra, Hien Kat Nguyen, and Kat Thompson recontextualize cultural, religious, and political symbols and signifiers.

Past Exhibition

Kinetic (2023)

September 30–October 14, 2023

The second catalogue of Kinetic debuted with an exhibition at Hamiltonian Artists. We asked current Hamiltonian Artists fellows to nominate, and exhibit alongside, artists they admire.…