Việt Lê (born 1976) is a Vietnamese-born American artist, writer, and curator. Lê is an associate professor at the California College of the Arts.
He has been published in positions: Asia critique; Crab Orchard Review; American Quarterly; Amerasia Journal; Art Journal; and the anthologies Writing from the Perfume River; Strange Cargo; The Spaces Between Us; Modern and Contemporary Southeast Asian Art; among others.
Biography Việt Lê was born in 1976 in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. Lê received his M.F.A. degree from the University of California, Irvine. He received his M.A. and Ph.D. from the University of Southern California. In Taipei, he was a postdoctoral fellow at Academia Sinica.
Exhibitions Solo art exhibitions include lovebang! (2016) at Kellogg University Art Gallery, Los Angeles; vestige (2015) at H Gallery, Bangkok; tan nÁRT cõi lòng | heARTbreak! (Nhà Sàn Collective Hà Nội). Lê has presented his work at The Banff Centre, Alberta, Canada; UCLA Hammer Museum, Los Angeles, USA; DoBaeBacSa Gallery, Seoul, Korea; Japan Foundation, Việt Nam; 1a Space, Hong Kong; Bangkok Art & Cultural Center (BACC), Thailand; Civitella Ranieri, Italy; Shanghai Biennale, China; Rio Gay Film Festival, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil; among other venues.
Solo exhibitions 2016 lovebang!, February 27 - April 23, 2016, W. Keith and Janet Kellog University Art Gallery at California State University, Pomona, Pomona (two person solo exhibit with Laura Kina) tan nÁRT cõi lòng | heARTbreak! December 26, 2015 - January 3, 3016Nhà Sàn Collective Hà Nội, Việt Nam
2015 vestige, H Gallery, Bangkok, Thailand December 14, 2013 - January 14, 2015
2012 still December 10, 2011 - February 4, 2012California College of the Arts, San Francisco
2010 boy bang! November 4–28, 2010Java Arts, Phnom Penh, Cambodia
2009 succeed or quit June 8 - July 28, 2009site-specific installation, Umbria, Italy
2007 what's love got to do with it? October 2007two-person solo exhibition with Julie Thi UnderhillCreighton University Art Gallery, Omaha, NE
2004 represent June 21 - July 3, 2004site-specific installation, The Banff Centre, Canada pictures of you April 9–17, 2004Hudson D. Walker Gallery, Provincetown, MA It's a Fine Day March 5, 2004solo performance, Shoshin Performance Space, NYU
2002 sweet bitter August 11, 2002Solo performances by Việt Lê, Leo Garcia, LeVan D. Hawkins, Alex PennCurated by LeVan D. Hawkins, Highways Performance Space, SantaMonica, CA
2001 the indifference of every day September - December 2001multimedia installation of digital images and text in a public space Cyber A, University of California, Irvine
2000 hom(m)e July 2000 - January 2001site-specific installation Pillsbury Madison & Winthrop LLP, corporate office, Costa Mesa, California
1998 Masquerade: A Solo Exhibition January 27 - February 14, 1998Sight and Sound Gallery, California State University, Fullerton, California
Experimental Films lovebang! trilogy 2012-17 lovebang! 2016, directed by Việt Lê. Collaborators: Chean Long, Khvay Samnang, GiGi. eclipse, 2016, directed by Việt Lê with Jamie Maxtone-Graham. Collaborators: Nguyen Phuong Linh, Tuan Mami, Anh Phong Le. Producer: Nguyễn Quốc Thành. heARTbreak! 2016–17. Producer: Henry Tan. Select Film Festival Official Selection: Future Shorts Film Fest '12, Sài Gòn, Việt Nam; CAAMFest '12, San Francisco; Frameline LGBT Film Festival '13; San Francisco Global Vietnamese Film Fest '13; MIX New York Experimental Queer Film Fest '13, New York; Southwest Gay & Lesbian Film Fest, Alburquerbue New Mexico '13; Queer Arts Festival '13, Hà Noi, Việt Nam; Rio Gay Film Fest 2014, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil; Queer Rebels Exploding Lineage Film Fest, SF '14 Select Gallery Exhibitions/ Presentations: Bangkok Art & Culture Centre | The Art Centre, Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok, Thailand; Department of Avant Garde Cliches, Manila, Philippines; Meta House, Phnom Penh, Cambodia; Aljira A Center for the Arts; Boston, USA; Los Angeles, USA; Lanchester Gallery, Coventry, UK; Taipei, Taiwan; College Art Association, New York; USA Sonic Tonics: Spiritual Asias (working title) 2017- (feature film trilogy in-process)
Group exhibitions 2017 Waiting With performance. Invited collaborative performance with Faith Wilding.Northern California Women's Art Caucus, San Francisco, USA. January 17, 2017
2016 APAture Festival Featured Artist: October 9, 2016Việt Lê | Film Showcase, Koret Auditorium, SF Main Public Library, San Francisco, CA, USA Imaginary Selves February 2-March 10, 2016Guest curated by Jennifer Vanderpool, Ph.D.Harris Gallery, University of La Verne, 1950 Third Street, La Verne, California 91750
2015 Queer Rebels Fest! (eclipse screened) May 29–30, 2015 African American Art & Culture Complex, San Francisco
2014 forever queer! Dec. 20, 2013-January 5, 2014Nha San Collective, Hả Nội, Việt Nam, curated by Nguyễn Quốc Thành
2013 "Queer Rebels" Program (love bang! screened) November 2013Mix New York Queer Experimental Film Festivalcurated by Celeste Chan and Kali Boyce Southwest Gay & Lesbian Film Festival October 11–20, 2013(love bang! screened) Albuquerque, New Mexico "Transtastic" film shorts program (love bang! screened) June 24, 2013Frameline LGBT Film Festival. San Francisco, CA Sex. Money. Race. Gender: The Ladydrawers (of Ill.) June 27-July 27, 2013Exhibition & Workshop SeriesA+D Gallery, Chicago, Illinoiscurated by Anne Elizabeth Moore boi band poster workshop with Việt Lê & Morgan Claire, Residency Workshop Series July 25, 2013 Asian American Festival Favorites (love bang! screened) April 30, 2013OVEE TV, national platformcurated by Kar Yin Tham, Center for Asian American Media (CAAM) featuring Lobster Shmobster (Dave Quion & Kyle Ross /USA/2 minutes/2004); The Others (Aram Siu Wai Collier/USA/9 minutes/2009); love bang! (Việt Lê/Cambodia-USA/6 minutes/2012); Lady Razorbacks (Laura Green/USA/4 minutes/2011); The Postcard (Josh Kim/South Korea/15minutes/2007) Vietnamese Global Film Festival April 27–28, 2013Roxie Theater, San Francisco Organized by the Diasporic Vietnamese Artists Network (DVAN)
Fellowships Lê has received fellowships from Fulbright-Hays (Việt Nam), William Joiner Center (US), Civitella Ranieri Foundation (Italy), Fine Arts Work Center (US), Center for Khmer Studies (Cambodia), Art Matters Foundation, International Institute for Asian Studies (Leiden University, the Netherlands), Camargo Foundation (Cassis, France), and PEN Center USA.
Curatorial Lê co-curated, Miss Saigon with the Wind (2005) at Highways Performance Space, Santa Monica; and Charlie Don’t Surf! (2005) at Centre A, Vancouver, British Columbia; and he co-curated with Leta Ming and Yong Soon Min (2008), humor us at Los Angeles Municipal Art Gallery, Los Angeles; transPOP: Korea Việt Nam Remix (2008–2009) with Yong Soon Min traveling in Seoul, Saigon, Irvine, and San Francisco; the 2012 Taipei Kuandu Biennale, and Love in the Time of War (UC Santa Barbara and SF Camerawork), which features special online-only projects. He co-organized the 2015 Artistic Interventions: Histories, Cartographies in Asia conference (Ph.D. workshops and symposium) in Hong Kong.
Writing He has co-edited special issues of Asian American Literary Review ([Re]Collecting Vietnam, 2015), BOL Journal (Việt Nam and Us, 2008) and Reflections: A Journal of Writing, Service Learning, and Community Literacy (Syracuse University Press, 2008). Lê has also coedited with Professor Lan Duong a special issue of Visual Anthropology (Routledge, forthcoming). He is a reviews co-editor (with Prof. Laura Kina) of Asian Diasporic Visual Cultures and the Americas (ADVA) (Brill). He was a nominated finalist for the 2009 Sovereign Art Foundation Art Prize (Hong Kong). His poetry collection was a 2013 Crab Orchard Review First Book Award Semi-Finalist.
He received the inaugural Prudential Eye Prize for Best Writing on Asian Contemporary Art in 2015
References
External links
CCA Official faculty profile Whiting, Sam (2016). "Southeast Asian Artists Reflect on War that's Never in the Past," San Francisco Chronicle. September 28, 2016. Chandra, Ravi. "Inside the Fantastical Mind of Việt Lê." Center for Asian American Media (CAAMFest) interview. March 17, 2016. International Southeast Asian Film Festival (I-SEA), 2016. Glassey-Tranguyen, Trangdai (2015). "Articulating Refug-endity in VietnAmerica and the Diasporas 1975-2015: From Ethnic Autonomy to Global Visibility," Journal of Southeast Asian American Education and Advancement: Vol. 10: Iss. 1, Article 5. Buchele, Fabiola. "In the Studio: Việt Lê ." & of Other Things. December 25, 2015. Artistic Interventions: Histories, Cartographies in Asia Cornet, Laurence. "War is for the Living: Art and Conflict." Le Journal de la Photagraphie,March 15, 2013. English and French review. Paris, France. Hertado, Anna. "Việt Lê: Love Bang! " Projecting Identity exhibition catalogue essay (PDF). Drake University. November 2012. p. 8-11. Bui, Diem-My T. "Aesthetic Strategies: Vietnamese American Interventions in Cultural Production" (book chapter discussing Miss Saigon with the Wind, curated by Việt Lê).