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Join us for a free artist talk with our Fall 2025 exhibiting artist! šØKenny Nguyen: The Divine Eye is an evocative, large-scale installation that invites viewers to engage with the rich spiritual and cultural history of Vietnam through the lens of Caodaism. Rooted in the synthesis of Eastern and Western philosophies, Caodaismāa syncretic religion founded in Vietnam in the 1920sāserves as both inspiration and metaphor in this powerful work.
āļø About Kenny Nguyen:
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
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Event Venue & Nearby Stays
161 Calhoun St, Charleston, SC, United States, South Carolina 29401
