Michelle Nguyen | Horror Vacui

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Michelle Nguyen, "Altarpieces I, (detail)"

oil on canvas. Courtesy of the Gallery.

Opening Reception: Saturday November 5, 2-4pm - Artist in attendance

Michelle Nguyen uses oil, pastel, and vivid colours to illustrate worlds dense with mythology, symbolism, and narrative. In her current work, Nguyen looks to encourage viewers to think and speak openly about human mortality and acknowledge death as an inevitable reality - she believes that contemporary Western society has created a culture of death denial and fear that is detrimental to the emotional and spiritual well being of the individual and the communities to which they belong. She infuses her images with important commentary on inherited trauma and ancestral grief through her lens as part of a Vietnamese Canadian family.

Michelle Nguyen’s rich, allegorical paintings use human and animal bodies in varying states to explore notions of identity, existence, and historical erasure. Her canvases are populated by elegant, humorous or even grotesque figures, as well as carefully selected vegetation and objects - often iterations of classical motifs - that appear to be part dream, part nightmare. Nguyen uses oil, pastel, and vivid colours to illustrate worlds dense with mythology, symbolism, and narrative.

Born in Toronto, Nguyen currently lives and works in Vancouver. She studied Environmental Design and received her undergraduate degree from the University of British Columbia in 2016.