TIA-THUY NGUYEN

Capturing this dichotomy, Tia’s paintings evoke a wide range of moods - from joy and hope, to gloominess and anxiety.Embellished with beads and embroidery, the glittery, shimmery works reflect the complexity, mystery and mutability ofTia’s chosen subject matter. Representing an homage to her father - who passed away in 2022, and whose presence theartist has since experienced as a light radiating from inside herself - Tia’s recent works evoke historical associations oflight and spirituality, from sun streaming through stained-glass windows in a cathedral to Mark Rothko’s radiantabstractions.

As the series’ title suggests, ‘I, my, me, cloud’ explores the subjective and ephemeral nature of celestial accumulationsof moisture. Moisture, however, is only part of the equation when it comes to how we experience clouds. Light also playsa key role and is therefore a major subject for the artist. Rooted in the Quantum Theory of Light¹, Tia’s paintingsconjure photons (the minute particles that make up light itself) via tiny glass beads, each of which reflects lightdifferently to give the impression of an oscillating surface. With a nod to the French Impressionists, who conceived a newstyle of painting based on their desire to capture the effects of light on landscape, Tia has found a mixed-media techniquethat brings painting beyond mimesis or expression and towards experience. Expanding upon the disparate daubs of paintthat Claude Monet, Berthe Morisot and Camille Pissarro used to conjure fleeting effects of sun, shadow and atmosphereon water and land, Tia uses thousands of beads and yards of colorful wool, jute, and bamboo yarns to create dazzling liveinterplays of light and shadow across the surfaces of her paintings.

In some cases, as in the work Flying to Eternity, the entire composition has been bedazzled with thousands of beadssourced from India, Prague, China, Poland, Vietnam and Japan. Reflecting the light differently according to ambientconditions of in gallery as well as the precise perspective of the viewer, the surface of the painting appears to be inconstant flux. Building on what the Impressionists sought to evoke using paint alone, Tia’s mixed-media createscompositions that are actually and forever changing - sometimes subtly, sometimes dramatically - according to theirsurroundings. Like a never-ending game of tag, light bounces around the surface and changes the composition again andagain. It is impossible to experience one of these paintings the same way twice.

In other works, like The Lap of Sunrise, Tia has also embroidered onto the canvas, adding layers of warmth and softnessover the original painted image. Though the embroidery does not glint or sparkle like the beading, these stratifiedsurfaces court shadows and highlights in ways that suggest depth and density. Tia’s fluffy swirls and curls of vibrantshades of red, pink, orange and yellow also recall the psychedelic patterns associated with Emilio Pucci prints. The link tocouture is apt, as Tia is also a fashion designer and has long incorporated traditional beading and embroidery techniquesinto her designs.

Tia’s colour palette, which is not based on her observations of natures, sets her apart from the Impressionists andprovides a connection even further back into art history. The bold, bright, wholly unexpected colors thatcharacterize her cloud paintings are inspired by traditional Vietnamese folk arts, particularly the technique ofHàng Trống, which dates back to the sixteenth century. A mixed-media process, Hàng Trống begins with awoodblock print that provides a template for the main compositional elements of the final painting. Each print ishand-painted with bright colors and slightly varied details. The fact that Hàng Trống paintings can be consideredboth serial and unique is something Tia explores further in her own work. Depicting the same subject matterover and over, Tia insists on the one-of-a-kind status of each cloud (and each artwork.)

For Tia, clouds are like a blank canvas onto which elements like colour, form and materiality are not intrinsic, butimposed. What we see as clouds are really the results of multiple external factors such as light, wind and moisture levels,all of which are constantly in flux. When Tia adds paint, beading and embroidery to canvas, she imposes an image on thecanvas. However, by design, each of Tia’s cloud paintings will be seen and interpreted differently. More so than cloudsthemselves, the main subject of Tia’s paintings is subjectivity itself.

1 Proposed by Albert Einstein in 1921, the Quantum Theory of Light states that light travels in bundles of energy, eachbundle known as a photon.

Press release courtesy Almine Rech. Text: -Mara Hoberman.