Through literature, philosophy and daily life, Thao Nguyen Phan observes ambiguous issues in social convention, history and tradition. An honours graduate from Singapore’s Lasalle College of the Arts in 2009, four years later Phan received an MFA in Painting and Drawing from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC). Today, in addition to her work as a multimedia artist, she has joined forces with artist Truong Cong Tung and curator Arlette Quynh-Anh Tran to form Art Labor. This collective explores cross-disciplinary practices and develops art projects that will benefit the local community. Thao Nguyen Phan is expanding her “theatrical fields”, including what she calls performance gesture and moving images. Phan has exhibited widely in Southeast Asia and is a 2016-2017 Rolex Protégée, mentored by internationally acclaimed, New York-based, performance and video artist, Joan Jonas.  In 2019 she will be part of Lyon Biennial and exhibit at fundació Joan Miró; in 2020 her works will be shown at Chisenhale Gallery, London, and at Wiels, Brussels.

Last update: October 8th, 2019

Curator Barbara London is the author of Video/Art, the First Fifty Years, published by Phaidon and available January 14, 2020. Recently she organized Seeing Sound, an exhibition that places its audience in immersive encounters with sound as art, and challenges the private quality of our contemporary sonic experience. Featuring the work of eight international artists, the show will circulate through Independent Curators International, 2020-2025. Ms. London founded the video exhibition and collection programs at The Museum of Modern Art, where she worked between 1973 and 2013. During her tenure, she oversaw the acquisition of more than 1000 media art works, including installations, single-channel videotapes, and music videos. Among the over 200 exhibitions she organized include one-person shows featuring early audiovisual mavericks Nam June Paik, Bill Viola, Steina Vasulka, Joan Jonas, Shigeko Kubota, Catalina Parra, Peter Campus, Gary Hill, VALIE EXPORT, Steve McQueen, and Laurie Anderson. She was the first curator in the United States to showcase the careers of Asia-based media artists Zhang Peili, Song Dong, Teiji Furuhashi, Feng Mengbo, and Yang Fudong. Similarly, she was the first to research and showcase media from Latin America. Her thematic projects have included Video from Tokyo to Fukui and Kyoto; New Video from China; Anime!, Stillness (Michael Snow and Sam Taylor-Wood), Automatic Update; Looking at Music, parts 1-3; Through the Weeping Glass: On Consolations of Life Everlasting (Limbos & Afterbreezes in the Mütter Museum) with the Quay Brothers; Music Video: the Industry and Its Fringes; and Soundings: A Contemporary Score at MoMA. She is an adjunct professor at Yale University and is a consultant with the Kadist Foundation, San Francisco and Paris.

Last update 23rd October 2019