In early 2025, the Des Moines Art Center launched a five-year strategic plan and one of the four exciting priorities for our efforts is to “Bring the World to Iowa, and Iowa to the World.” With that in mind, it is the perfect opportunity to welcome Tuan Andrew Nguyen, an artist whose practice is based in Ho Chi Mihn City, Vietnam to the Art Center on May 4.
Nguyen’s absorbing video “The Boat People” (2020), is a major element of the current exhibition “Time Travelers” (on view in the Anna K. Meredith Gallery, closing May 11). This video is part of the museum’s permanent collections, as is “AK-47 vs. M16” (2015), a mixed media sculpture by The Propeller Group, an artist collective of which Nguyen is a founding member.
Tuan Andrew Nguyen’s practice explores the power of memory and its potential to act as a form of political resistance. His practice is fueled by research and a commitment to communities that have faced traumas caused by colonialism, war, and displacement. Through his continuous attempts to engage with vanishing or vanquished historical memory, Nguyen investigates the erasures that the colonial project has brought to bear on certain parts of the world. Through collaborative endeavors with various communities throughout the world, Nguyen sets out to cultivate and empower these strategies enacted and embodied by his collaborators. Through this collaborative practice, he explores memory as a form of resistance and empowerment, emphasizing the power of storytelling as a means for healing, empathy, and solidarity.
Free; registration required.