For the second episode of art workers, I am so excited to introduce you to Phung Huynh. I met Phung through my work at the USC Pacific Asia Museum where she was in a group show with seven female contemporary Asian artists working in Los Angeles. We Are Here was an exhibition that celebrated identity, thoughts on home, migration stories, and the female experience for these seven creative women. Sadly the show was only open two days as it was forced to close due to the pandemic in March 2020.
It was a very formative exhibition for me, and one I hold so deeply in my heart as a professional working to uplift underrepresented voices in the arts. For that exhibition I produced seven mini-docs on each artist. Phung was the first artist we interviewed. We met her in her studio on a sunny fall morning and she was immediately welcoming, inviting and so warm. Listening to Phung discuss her identity as a South-East Asian refugee and talk about what inspires her art, I left her studio feeling like the world truly is changing. Flash forward a few years later and she has become a force to be reckoned with. Listening to her reminds us that our identity(ies) and our stories are ours, and we can be unapologetic about them.
A friend told her to “take that token and run,” because with her success she can blow the doors wide open to other BIPOC artists.
In the podcast she talks about how it has taken her almost twenty years to feel “successful” as an artist. She attributes her success to her art taking a personal turn due to the Trump administration, Covid-19, Black Lives Matter and the Stop Asian Hate movements that sprung up during the pandemic. In regard to her fears of feeling tokenized, she said that a friend told her to “take that token and run,” because with her success she can blow the doors wide open to other BIPOC artists. She also tells a touching story about her family having a Chicana mama/abuelita who helped advocate for her parents while they were new immigrants in the 1980’s. We joke that she certainly has become the “mama” for so many trying to navigate the art world as people of color, but the story of her abuelita also serves as a reminder that when we find community we can create so much and that we can find mentors and advocates in everyone we meet that works to lift us up.
Listen to Episode 2: Take that Token and Run
About Phung Huynh
b. 1977, Rach Gia, Vietnam
Phung Huynh is a Los Angeles-based artist and educator with a practice in drawing, painting, public art, and community engagement. Her work explores cultural perception and representation. Huynh challenges beauty standards by constructing images of the Asian female body vis-à-vis plastic surgery to unpack how contemporary cosmetic surgery can whitewash cultural and racial identity. Her work of drawings and prints on pink donut boxes explores the complexities of assimilation and cultural negotiation among Cambodian and Vietnamese refugees who have resettled in the United States. Phung Huynh has had solo exhibitions at Gagosian Gallery in Beverly Hills and the Sweeney Art Gallery at the University of California, Riverside. Her paintings and drawings have been exhibited nationally and internationally, including spaces such as the U.S. Embassy in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. She has also completed public art commissions for the Metro Orange Line, Metro Silver Line, the Los Angeles Zoo, and the Los Angeles County + USC Medical Center through the Los Angeles County Department of Arts and Culture. Phung Huynh is Assistant Professor of Art at California State University Los Angeles where her focus is on serving disproportionately impacted students. She has served as Chair of the Public Art Commission for the city of South Pasadena and Chair of the Prison Arts Collective Advisory Council, which supports arts programming in California state prisons. She served on the Board of Directors for LA Más, a non-profit organization that serves BIPOC working class immigrant communities in Northeast Los Angeles. Huynh completed undergraduate coursework at the University of Southern California, received a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree with distinction from the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, and received her Master of Fine Arts degree from New York University. She is a recipient of the City of Los Angeles Individual Artist Fellowship, the California Arts Council Individual Established Artist Fellowship, the California Community Foundation Visual Artist Fellowship, and the Marciano Art Foundation Artadia Award. Phung Huynh is Assistant Professor of Art at California State University Los Angeles, and she is represented by Luis De Jesus Gallery in Los Angeles.