Hom Nguyen

Although he was interested in drawings and making portraits since childhood, Nguyen's life shows that his daily responsibilities delayed his entry into the art world. Hom Nguyen decided to start his own business as a leather patina artist in 2009, the year his mother's died. He originally worked as a shoe salesman.[3][4]

With a difficult start, he developed his own technique during the initial few months in Tokyo, Japan, learning from great masters of the tattoo in Shibuya. In France, his work focused on patinas, colors, and material. He became known for "works of art you can wear."

Many collaborations (notably one with the designer Ora-Ito in 2011) guided him further into the world of design and art. In 2009, Nguyen moved into a large workshop in Bagnolet, allowing him to start portraits on large format canvases.[5] Since then, Hom Nguyen has devoted himself to drawing and painting. His works are increasingly exposed to the world through international contemporary art exhibitions. The Bangkok Post[6] highlights that the artist never stops himself from making a foray into other lands, such as his perspective on Asian artistic and philosophical tradition. As the representative of occidental and oriental culture, Hom Nguyen works toward widening the cultural set, creating a bridge between France and Asia.

During the 2016 edition of the contemporary art fair Art Paris Art Fair, held at the Grand Palais in Paris, French President François Hollande came to appreciate Hom Nguyen's work. On June 15, 2016, Hom Nguyen presented the series "Sans Repères" for the first time in the Palais de Tokyo.[7]

Since 2016, Hom Nguyen has led a drawing and painting workshop at the psychiatric ward of the hospital of the Pitié-Salpêtrière with adolescent patients in Professor David Cohen's unit.

In 2019, working in association with the Monnaie de Paris Museum[8] and vogue magazine, he creates Michele Obama’s iconic portrait. The auction of this work of art by Christie’s is a success. The money raised is used to fund UN Women’s programs for sex equality and women empowerment. This same year, he pays a vibrant tribute to Edit Piaf by giving birth to a monumental portrait[9] currently being displayed in the entrance hall of Tenon Hospital’s Meyneil wing. A gigantic permanent masterpiece also covers the outside wall of the same building, where Edit Piaf was born in 1915. Next, the artist took part in the 250th birthday celebration of Napoleon Bonaparte by creating a contemporary portrait of the emperor for the MUDACC (museum of the art of the citadel in Calvi).

During that same time, the artist puts on an exhibition titled Portraits of Legionnaires for the 2nd foreign regiment of paratroopers at the Camp Raffalli in Corsica. This encounter leaves a profound mark on the artist. The French Foreign Legion’s values, its traditions and its attachment to France, which are born from its personal stories, resonate with the artist’s origins. Colonel Christophe Passerat de la Chapelle[10] would later say “Hom Nguyen has this legionnaire soul”[11]

In 2020, the artist made a record auction for an amount of €224,000 in favor of the NGO the Children of the Mekong.[12] Thanks to this sale, 750 children will be able to be fed and will receive additional lessons at the center for a year, including drawing lessons. Hom hopes to motivate other artists and enhance a sense of generosity in the art world.

Hom Nguyen is a self-taught artist whose work is characterized by an instinctive and lively style. He uses many different materials such as oil, acrylic, ink, felt gouache and charcoal. Colors and movement are projected onto the canvas in the same visual manner that is characteristic of Jenny Saville's treatment of the flesh. Hom can also be linked with the figurative art of Lucian Freud, due to his expressive touch and tendency to torture and layer his material.[13] However, Hom Nguyen offers a new pictorial vocabulary that is more emotional than that of Freud. The artist creates most of his works on canvas with a brush, pen, and knife.[14]

The first series Hidden ,"Sans Repères" and "Inner Cry" continue to pay tribute to the artist’s mother and the history of immigration. Each one leads the audience to feel the pains and nightmares experienced by these children and illustrate the interpretation of our subconscious dreams: on one hand, the desire to establish a first human interaction necessarily requires eye contact; on the other hand, shouting for help is not necessarily heard. No sound comes out, only the inner cry remains.[15][16]

Hom's work on a series of penciled masks particularly focused on the expression of Asian children without mouth, is the result of a purely mental projection. Working without a human model, Hom Nguyen solely relies on his memory and emotion of the moment to draw the face of the child he used to be : a child born to an immigrant mother, one of the "boat people".[17]

With the following series “lifeline”, “trajectory”, “dark side” and “Roots”, the artist continues with his introspective process, his works echo a resilient memory, passing down a history gone by in a quest for identity.

The fleetingness of the artist’s life lines facilitate the emergence of an emotional experience where barriers fade. His works fit in the transition between figurative and abstract art, serving to question the lines between material and intellect, emotion and questioning. The artist’s intent is to open the individual to the possibility of changeability, of an openness toward others.

His stroke does not completely outline the model, he does not define it. Hom suggests perspectives, offers temporary limits, draws new trajectories and tends to break the boundaries between the human and the world, between the subject and the object, between sense and sensibility.

• 2019 : Miaja Gallery, solo show, Singapore[19]
• 2019 : KIAF Art Fair,[20] Seoul, South Korea[21]
• 2019 : Museum of the French Foreign Legion, portraits of Legionnaires, permanent artwork, Corse, France[11]
• 2019 : L'Embarcadère - cultural centre, solo show, Montceau-les-Mines, France[22]
• 2019 : MUDDAC, museum of the art of the citadel in Calvi, Solo Show, Calvi, Corse, France.[23]
• 2019 : Château Madame de Graffigny (Madame de Graffigny's Castle), Racines, Solo show, Villers-lès-Nancy, France[24]
• 2019 : Tribute to Édith Piaf, Tenon Hospital, Paris, France[18]
• 2019 : Togeth’her, Vogue, Monnaie de Paris, France[25]
• 2019 : So What, Subhashok the Arts Centre, Bangkok, Thailand[26]
• 2018 : Dark Side , solo show, A2Z Art Gallery, Paris, France[27]
• 2018 : You Man, solo show, A2Z Art Gallery, Hong Kong.
• 2018 : Voyage, Station, represented by A2Z Art Gallery, Paris, France
• 2018 : Life's Doodle, Bangkok, represented by A2Z Art Gallery[28]
• 2018 : Grand Palais, Art Paris Art Fair, represented, by A2Z Art Gallery, Paris
• 2018 : Bvlgari, Place Vendôme Paris, France
• 2017 : Ligne de Vie, Montresso Art Foundation, Marrakesh, Morocco
• 2017 : Trajectory, solo show, A2Z Art Gallery, Paris, France
• 2017: Massey Muséum / Le Carmel, solo show in collaboration with A2Z Art Gallery, Tarbes, France.[29]
• 2017: Art Paris Art Fair, represented, among others, by A2Z Art Gallery, Grand Palais, Paris, France.[30]
• 2017: Art Central HongKong, represented, among others, by A2Z Art Gallery, 9 Lung Wo Road, Central, Hong Kong.[31]
• 2016: Asia Now, Paris Asian Art Fair, represented by A2Z Art Gallery, 9 avenue Hoche, Paris, France[32]
• 2016 : Serie Sans Repères, solo show, A2Z Art Gallery, Hong Kong, China[33]
• 2016: Inner Cry, solo show, A2Z Art Gallery, Paris, France.
• 2016 : Serie Sans Repères, represented by A2Z Art Gallery, Bali, Indonésie.[34][35]
• 2016: Serie Sans Repères, solo show represented by A2Z Art Gallery at the Palais of Tokyo, Paris, France.[36][37]
• 2016: Art Paris Art Fair, represented, among others, by A2Z Art Gallery, Grand Palais, Paris, France
• 2016: Art Central HongKong, represented, among others, by A2Z Art Gallery, 9 Lung Wo Road, Central, Hong Kong.
• 2016: Art Stage Singapour, represented, among others, by A2Z Art Gallery, Marina Bay Sands Expo and Convention Centre, Singapour, Singapour.
• 2015: Etat second, group show (Hom Nguyen, Jin Bo, Gaël Davrinche, Kent Williams, Émeric Chantier), A2Z Art Gallery, Paris, France.
• 2015: Exposition collective d’été, group show (Hom Nguyen, Wang Keping, Ma Desheng, Nicolas Panayotou, Zhang Wei, Jin Bo), A2Z Art Gallery, Paris, France.
• 2015: Art Paris Art Fair, represented, among others, by A2Z Art Gallery, Grand Palais, Paris, France.
• 2015: Le combat du siècle, Solo Show, A2Z Art Gallery, Paris, France.[38]
• 2014: Levée de voile, Solo Show, Galerie Favardin & De Verneuil, Paris, France.
• 2013: Beirut Art Fair, Beyrouth, Liban.
• 2013: Hôtel Drouot, Auction Sales, Paris, France.
• 2011: Fondation Pierre Bergé, the artwork Geisha has been made with the collaboration of Ora-ïto, Auctions-Sales, Bruxelles, Belgique.

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