NEW LONDON, CONN.- Lyman Allyn Art Museum announces the opening of Thuan Vu: Kintsugi in the New World, an exhibition featuring a dynamic series of paintings from New Haven artist Thuan Vu. Drawn from both his Kintsugi flower series and The New World series, these paintings reflect the Japanese philosophy of placing value on that which has been broken and repaired, whether it be an object, community, or person. His paintings offer a revised sense of wholeness and beauty even in the face of fracture and confusion. This exhibition is on view Jan. 18 through Mar. 30, 2025.
As a Vietnamese refugee, Vu’s work is about finding a sense of wholeness and beauty in our divided selves, our fractured country, and our complicated world. “For the past 10 years, I’ve made a series of paintings called The New World, which abstractly reimagines the sensations felt by my parents when they fled Vietnam during the war and settled in America with seven of their eight children,” says Vu. “These completely imaginary landscapes tap into a refugee’s feelings of hope, joy, and confusion—but these feelings are universal. Framed by nature, the painting’s offer a space for the viewer’s mind to search, discover, and breathe in a space to call home.”
Vu's most recent Kintsugi series utilizes the Japanese practice/philosophy of repairing broken pottery by rejoining the pieces together using gold. The newly repaired piece, proudly showing its golden scars, is seen as more beautiful for showing its history, resiliency, and its ability to be transformed from trauma. Using this mending philosophy, Vu reflects on wholeness as it relates to his identity and asks, “How do we find beauty and grace in times of fracture and disruption? Can the process of recovery, discovery, and growth—with its infinite complications—be seen as beautiful and valuable?”
"This exhibition offers a profound reflection on resilience and transformation,” said Museum Director Sam Quigley. “Vu invites us to consider the often-overlooked grace in our own fractures—be they physical, emotional, or psychological. In these striking paintings, the act of repair becomes a powerful metaphor for healing, identity, and belonging.”
Kintsugi in the New World represents a reflection on belonging in one’s skin and in the world. It is not only a celebration of beauty in imperfection, but a poignant meditation on the process of becoming whole, even amidst life’s most challenging disruptions.
Thuan Vu is an awarding winning artist and professor at Southern Connecticut State University in New Haven, CT. He was born in Saigon, Vietnam and settled with his family in New Orleans, LA. His paintings examine constructions of identity, especially those of Vietnamese refugees. His research has taken him to Vietnam, Paris, and Japan– where he studies Vietnamese communities world-wide. In 2020, he was the only painter to receive the Artistic Excellence Award by the Connecticut Office of the Arts. The recipient of numerous awards and grants, Thuan lectures nationally, and has had over 15 solo exhibitions.
“In my work, I use nature as both a mirror and window to communicate who I am, where I’ve come from, and how I experience our world. The majesty and poetry of nature is a reflection of my emotional landscape while providing a canvas on which to dream and reflect.”
