PHOENIX, AZ.- Phoenix Art Museum announces the acquisition of Reflection Between Flashes (2023) by Tuan Andrew Nguyen. The work is the latest purchased by the Museum with funds from Men’s Arts Council and the first by Nguyen acquired into the Museum’s collection of more than 21,000 objects. Nguyen, whose work was recently presented in solo exhibitions at Zeitz MoCAA in Cape Town, South Africa, as well as at James Cohan in New York City, is internationally renowned for his video and sculpture that examine colonial histories and supernaturalisms by tapping into inherited histories and counter-memory. His work Reflection Between Flashes is inspired by the cascading works of Alexander Calder but made from salvaged unexploded munitions recovered from Central Vietnam. The mobile expands representation of contemporary Southeast Asian artists in the Museum’s Asian art collection. An announcement regarding when the work will be on view in the galleries will be shared at a later date.

“The kinetic work of Tuan Andrew Nguyen is an extraordinary addition to the PhxArt Collection,” said Jeremy Mikolajczak, the Museum’s Sybil Harrington Director and CEO. “Nguyen’s work regularly unearths stories of resilience, community, and regeneration, reminding us of the memories that objects and materials can hold and how artists can transform them to be seen and experienced in new ways by contemporary audiences. We are deeply grateful to Men’s Arts Council for supporting the acquisition of this work, and we look forward to sharing it with our visitors.”

Born in Saigon and now based in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam and Los Angeles, Nguyen and his family emigrated in 1979 as refugees to the United States. In 1999, he graduated from the Fine Arts program at the University of California, Irvine, and in 2004 earned his Master of Fine Arts from The California Institute of the Arts. Nguyen is a co-founder and former board member of Sàn Art and was a founding member of The Propeller Group.

Nguyen's sculptures are regularly made from fragments of unexploded ordnances (UXOs) recovered in the Quang Trị region of central Vietnam, the site of the largest aerial bombardment in history. Reflection Between Flashes, whose composition is inspired by several important cascading works by Alexander Calder, features 12 ‘plate bells,’ five of which are cast from a mixture of salvaged bomb metal and stainless steel, with the remaining seven made of cast brass from found artillery shells. The elegant form of the monumental hanging mobile stands in stark contrast to the brutal origins of the materials used to create it. A kinetic artwork, it moves with the flow of air and vibrations of sound in the gallery space in which it exists, creating a naturally shifting play of abstract spatial relationships that suggest a state of perpetual change. Nguyen worked with a sound healer who tuned the work to 432 Hz. When rung with a mallet, the sculpture vibrates at a precisely calibrated healing frequency.

“With his mobile works, Nguyen explores the concept of not merely reusing or recycling material from unexploded ordnance, but material reincarnation,” said Colin Pearson, the Museum’s curator of Asian art. “The result is the rebirth of leftovers from a devastating war into an incredibly elegant kinetic sculpture that exudes healing energy to enhance the world around it.”

Nguyen has had major solo presentations at the New Museum, New York, NY; Fondació Joan Miró, Barcelona, Spain; Zeitz MOCAA, Cape Town, South Africa; and the Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington DC. His work is in the permanent collections of several distinguished national and international collections, including the Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, IL; Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn, NY; Carré d’Art - Musée d’art contemporain de Nîmes, France; Dallas Museum of Art, Dallas, TX; Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, TX; Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY; Guggenheim Museum, New York, NY; Taguchi Art Collection, Japan; The Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY; and now, Phoenix Art Museum, Phoenix, AZ.

“We're very excited about this year's MAC pick featuring Tuan Andrew Nguyen’s work," said Sentari Minor, Men's Arts Council Board President. “It marks a powerful moment for our museum and our community. Nguyen’s ability to breathe new life into materials and narratives invites our audiences to engage with the past in ways that they didn't know existed. This work will not only enrich the Museum's collection but also foster meaningful connections across generations and cultures.”