about me BIOGRAPHY
ABOUT THE ARTIST PHI PHI OANH
Born in Texas, Phi Phi Oanh graduated in 2002 with a BA in Visual Arts from Parsons School of Design in New York and Paris. In 2004 she studied Fresco Painting at the Fine Arts University Complutense in Madrid, where she began experimenting with mural paintings and architectural space. Receiving a Fulbright Grant in 2005, Phi Phi began her research in Vietnamese Son Ta lacquer painting in Hanoi.
Phi Phi Oanh constructs large pictorial installations evoking meditative spaces. Reconfiguring her paintings to create a visceral spatial experience, she references eastern and western art history at their metaphysical intersections to highlight the experiential qualities of art. She focuses on the materiality of the lacquer to convey within her work a feeling of inner radiance as a vehicle to incite a memory or reflection. Groundbreaking and highly experimental in her methods and scale, Phi Phi reexamines natural Vietnamese lacquer as an image making medium and explores its applications. The hybrid nature of Phi Phi’s personal history and attitude informs the multilayered breadth of her work.
Select Solo Exhibitions
Specula , Hanoi City Exhibition Hall, Hanoi 12/2009
Make Shift , Japan Foundation, Hanoi 12/2009
Black Box , LA Artcore, Los Angeles, 08/2008
Black Box , Art League Houston, 02/2008
Black Box , National Museum of Fine Arts, Hanoi, 07/2007
El Dorado , Palacio Nacional de la Cultura, Managua, 05/2003
Pax , Gallery Parsons, Paris 05/2002
