We are thrilled to currently be hosting artist Kenny Nguyen and his family as part of our Artist in Residency program here at Robert Lange Studios. As Kenny prepares for and exhibits his remarkable new show at the Halsey Institute of Contemporary Art, it’s been a privilege to offer him space and support during this pivotal moment in his career.
Kenny’s work is both visually stunning and deeply conceptual. Drawing on his Vietnamese heritage and experiences of migration, his pieces often use deconstructed silk as both material and metaphor—layering memory, identity, and transformation. His current body of work at the Halsey is no exception. With a distinct sense of motion and texture, his installations invite viewers to contemplate how cultural identity can be both fragile and resilient. His use of color, light, and space offers a meditative experience that resonates long after the first viewing.
Our Artist in Residency program exists for exactly this reason: to nurture and support voices like Kenny’s, giving them the time, environment, and freedom to create and share work that adds to Charleston’s rich artistic landscape. We believe that bringing artists from around the world into the heart of our community sparks conversations, challenges perspectives, and ultimately makes our city a more vibrant place.
It’s not just about providing a place to stay—it’s about creating connection. Through conversations in the gallery, studio visits, and casual encounters in town, Kenny and his family have already become a welcome part of our local arts family. These are the kinds of exchanges that stay with us—reminders of the universal language of art and the power of hospitality.
We encourage everyone to visit Kenny’s show at the Halsey Institute while it’s on view. It’s a powerful, thoughtful exhibition that you won’t want to miss.
And to Kenny and his family: thank you for being here. It’s been an honor to host you.
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To learn more about our Artist in Residency program or to get involved, feel free to reach out or stop by the gallery. We’re always happy to talk about how we can continue to support and uplift artists from around the world.
ABOUT THE ARTIST:
Kenny Nguyen (b. 1990, Ben Tre Province, Vietnam) creates expansive, dimensional, mixed-media paintings that center on ideas of cultural identity, displacement and integration.
Nguyen grew up on a coconut farm in a rural area near the Mekong Delta in southern Vietnam. Despite having an established career in fashion design, he decided to join his family when they moved to the United States in 2010.
Acclimating to an American way of life proved uneasy at first, especially with a language barrier that intensified feelings of alienation and isolation. Nguyen turned to artmaking as a coping mechanism and as a means to express himself in a more universal language. The transition from design to art was a natural one and in 2015 Nguyen earned a BFA in painting from the University of North Carolina Charlotte, and subsequently established a studio in Charlotte.
Drawing from his experience working with textiles, in particular, silk, a culturally significant material in Vietnam, Nguyen developed a distinctive technique to produce sensual, three-dimensional works that he describes as “deconstructed paintings.”
He begins by tearing swaths of silk fabric into hundreds of strips that he dips in acrylic paint and adheres to raw canvas. Methodically, almost meditatively, he repeats the process—tearing, painting, sanding, sewing, weaving, attaching, layering—until he has a structured but malleable medium, which he shapes into undulating, sculpted forms.
Nguyen’s paintings are often affixed to the wall with pushpins, allowing him the flexibility to rehang or adjust the composition as desired. The works can be stretched flat like a traditional canvas or gently draped, folded and creased into animated structures that unfurl along the wall and pool at the floor. Each installation is unique.
In some ways, Nguyen’s approach of deconstruction and reconstruction is akin to the experience of growing into his identity as Vietnamese American and as an artist. His use of silk, which remains the primary material in his practice, has evolved alongside him. Where he once chose it for its splendor and sense of familiarity, through a rigorous process of transformation, it now holds greater meaning for the artist: “For me, silk has become the connector tying both cultures together.”
Nguyen has participated in exhibitions across the globe, including at the Sejong Museum of Art, Seoul; CICA Museum (Czong Institute for Contemporary Art), Gimpo, Gyeonggi Province, Korea; Kunstwerk Carlshütte, Büdelsdorf, Germany; LaGrange Art Museum, Georgia; Museum of Contemporary Art Jacksonville, Florida; Orange County Center for Contemporary Art, Santa Ana, California; and The Rayburn House Office Building, United States Capitol Complex, Washington, DC. In 2024, Nguyen’s work was the subject of the solo exhibition Kenny Nguyen: Adaptations at the Mint Museum in Charlotte.
In 2016, Nguyen received the Excellence Asia Contemporary Young Artist Award from Sejong Museum of Art; in 2023, a nomination for the Joan Mitchell Fellowship; and in 2024, Asian Art in London’s Modern & Contemporary Art Award for a work from his Eruption series. He has been awarded numerous grants, fellowships and residencies.
