The Artist

1979 Houston Texas USA

Born in Houston in 1979, Phi Phi Oanh received her BFA at Parsons School of Design in 2002 and a Masters in Art and Investigation at the University of Madrid Complutense 2012. In 2004, she received a Fulbright Grant to study lacquer painting in Hanoi. Since then, Vietnamese lacquer has become central to her work, which focuses on its potential as a painting medium to convey memory or reflection, examine current theories of the image and expand into more experimental methods and scale.

The artist says, “Drawing from the hybrid nature of my personal history, I reconfigure culturally specific signs, symbols and ritualistic spaces to create pictorial installations of familiar yet unexpected experiential places. Central to the creation of these spaces is the use of Vietnamese natural lacquer, a medium that I have chosen for its complex history, process, potential for representation and rich materiality that defy easy categorization.”

The artist has been living and working in Vietnam since her arrival in 2004 and has distinguished herself internationally as one of the most innovative artists working in the lacquer medium. The artist has exhibited her works in many notable exhibitions in Vietnam and abroad in which she excels in portraying the versatility of the lacquer medium. Her first exhibition in Hanoi at the Vietnam Fine Arts Museum in 2007, Black Box, set the stage for the most innovative use of the lacquer medium and the artist has distinguished herself as a trail blazing pioneer since that time.

In 2017 The National Gallery Singapore mounted an exhibition entitled Radiant Material, Pro Se in which they commissioned Phi Phi to mount a contemporary response work to the acclaimed Vietnamese master artist Nguyen Gia Tri known for his innovative use of lacquer in the 1930s as an expressive medium for modern painting. The artist responds to Nguyen Gia Tri’s monumental 1936 painting Les Fées (The Fairies) by using lacquer painting to explore the way we view images today, as fleeting, virtual and interactive by creating lacquer surfaces on iPads. This exhibition invited the viewer to experience the beauty and versatility of Vietnamese lacquer painting through the work of two artists – one modern and one contemporary – who have each contributed strongly to the development of this unique art form. Phi Phi’s work was most recently exhibited in the 10th Asia Pacific Triennial in Brisbane, Australia 2022.

The artist has exhibited in many notable exhibitions in Vietnam and abroad and is considered one of the most exceptional international lacquer artists.

Armor 2013

This unique work of lacquer was presented in the exhibition in honor of International Women’s Day on March 8, 2014 at the Goethe Institute in Hanoi. The artist created her own breastplate out of fiberglass and then painted it in many layers of lacquer. On the front is the symbol of an Eagle, because she is American, on the back is the symbol of a Tiger, because she is Vietnamese. Atop the back of the shoulders is the Latin phrase, “Respice Aspice Prospice”, look to the Past, Present, Future, the heraldic motto to inspire.

The artist has chosen to use form as a metaphor, sculpting a feminine torso out of lacquer. She uses the traditional Vietnamese medium to give shape to a provocative form, embodying the in-between location of the artist in both contemporary American and Vietnamese culture. Interestingly, the seemingly feminine piece is entitled Armor – a title that awakens ideas of preservation, combat, and distance. When combined with her mask and pith helmet, the piece gives physical form to the armor we all wear in order to keep our singular identities intact.

“This armor is composed of parts from different territories, cultures and historical times that have shaped my identity as a person. Representing a uniform, it shows how we are called to be the bearer and custodian of contradictory thoughts and ideologies.” – Phi Phi Oanh