Ngo Dinh Bao Chau

From early on in her career, Ngo Dinh Bao Chau has worked with a wide range of materials, from sedge mats, steel, and concrete, to trúc chỉ – paper made from the purées of bamboo, corn and duckweed. Her practice examines contemporary life in Vietnam; she repurposes objects and images in order to challenge the dualisms and tensions that exist in society. In her most recent work, Ngo Dinh Bao Chau appropriates the symbols which are part of a collective, cultural memory, and places them in an imagined homespace. Through her multimedia installations, the artist comments on the power of repetition, and explores the indistinction between public and private space.

Ngo Dinh Bao Chau (b. 1986, Dong Thap), since graduating from the Ho Chi Minh University of Fine Arts, has held various exhibitions within the region and abroad, including Silk of light, San Art Productions x Phuong My, Ho Chi Minh City; Block of Silence, SECC, Ho Chi Minh City; Where The Sea Remembers, The Mistake Room, Los Angeles, CA, USA; Bodies Survey(ed), San Art, Ho Chi Minh City; She, Sweet ‘Art, London, UK, travelled to Little Pink Monster Gallery, TX, USA; Body Bouquet, Welch School Galleries, Atlanta, GA, USA; Out of Nowhere, Sao La, Ho Chi Minh City; and My Eldest Sister, San Art, Ho Chi Minh City. In 2018 she was selected for the apexart Fellowship in New York, USA, and in 2010 undertook the 943 Studio arts residency in Kunming, China. In 2016 she received a grant from the Denmark–Vietnam Cultural Development and Exchange Fund for Open Room – an open studio event with artists Cam Xanh, Lap-Xuan N. Do, Kim Duy, and Dao Tung.

Ngo Dinh Bao Chau lives and works between Hue and Ho Chi Minh City.