Thảo Nguyên Phan
b. 1987, Vietnam
Thảo Nguyên Phan (born 1987) is a Vietnamese visual multimedia artist whose practice encompasses painting, filmmaking, and installation. She currently lives and works in Ho Chi Minh City and has exhibited widely in Vietnam and abroad. Drawing inspiration from both official and unofficial histories, Phan references her country's turbulent past while observing ambiguous issues in social convention, history, and tradition. She has exhibited in solo and group exhibitions in Vietnam and abroad, at many public institutions, including the Factory Contemporary Art Centre, Ho Chi Minh City; Nha San Collective, Hanoi; Rockbund Art Museum, Shanghai; Times Art Center in Berlin, Timișoara; and The Mistake Room, Los Angeles.
She has won numerous awards throughout her career, and she is also a founding member of Art Labor (est. 2012) with artist Trương Công Tùng and curator Arlette Quỳnh-Anh Trần, a cross-disciplinary collective that develops art projects with the aim of benefiting the local community. In collaboration with independent art space Sàn Art in Ho Chi Minh, Art Labor hosts educational workshops that explore visual arts and the life sciences, examining shared cultural histories in the region through guest lectures and an artist-in-residency program.