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ARTIST BIOGRAPHY

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Santhanha Nguyen (b. 1990) is a British-born artist of mixed heritage, currently based in Birmingham, UK. She holds a BA in Fine Art from the Birmingham Institute of Art and Design (BCU) and a PGCE in Secondary Art and Design. After working within education, she transitioned to full-time freelance practice in 2024. Her work has been exhibited at prestigious galleries including New Art Exchange, Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery, The Herbert Art Gallery & Museum, and the Royal Birmingham Society of Artists (RBSA).

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ARTISTIC PRACTICE

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Working primarily within an Abstract Expressionist language, Nguyen explores the complex relationships between place, identity, and memory. Her practice investigates how painting can capture and preserve presence, emotion, and the residual traces of lived experience. She is interested in how feeling can endure when physical reality cannot, and how unseen forces shape our understanding of ourselves and the world around us.

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While her work often references photography, portraiture, and landscape, she is less concerned with likeness and more focused on capturing the emotional and existential residue that lingers after the moment has passed. Painting becomes a means of confronting the past and grappling with existential questions. Each mark operates as an exploration of energy and tension, examining the interplay between light, shadow, and material.

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Although Nguyen frequently draws from photographic and archival sources, her work is not documentary. Instead, it examines the instability of perception and the subjectivity of memory, revealing the tension between lived experience and representation. Through painting, she seeks to preserve presence, illuminate the unseen, and leave behind an enduring emotional trace.