FRIEZE SEOUL 2025: September 3 - 6, COEX

Galerie Quynh is thrilled to return to Frieze Seoul with Islands in the Sky, a presentation of works by Lien Truong that pay homage to her familial history of displacement through mythical storytelling. Working with acrylic, oil, printed and hand-painted silk, and vintage hand-painted Nagajuban silk from Japan on linen, Truong creates mountain islands in flux—untethered from earth, bound with zodiac animals, their holes revealing glimpses of her own chimeras born from the regional lore of her ancestral lands, to the places her family has called home.

Her work reimagines hòn non bộ, the Vietnamese art of crafting miniature landscapes founded on thousands of years of worshipping stones and the belief that caves were homes to sacred spirits. By envisioning these landscapes as unrooted assemblages, Truong references refugee narratives of displacement that sever people from ancestral lands. Yet she honors practices that endure beyond geographical boundaries. Her floating terrains transform hòn non bộ into a reminder that the earth itself is tied to cultural traditions and history.

This series emerges from an intimate family memory. In 1939, her paternal grandmother's death coincided with the bankruptcy of her father's embroidery business in Hanoi. Before relocating the family from Hanoi to Saigon, her grandfather took her father to visit Bai Dinh Pagoda in Ninh Binh Province. The pagoda and its stunning mountainous region became a deeply spiritual symbol, linking family tragedy to spiritual solace in the mountains—a symbol that became especially grounding when her family relocated once more to the United States in 1975 post-war.

Drawing from the ecological concept of assemblage, where diverse elements come together to form interconnected systems, her floating islands are composed of paint, ground earth pigments, and painted silk that conjure mythical interpretations of plant and animal life. These dynamic collections function as open-ended gatherings. Meaning remains fluid and ever-changing as brief, expressive gestures from human forms choreograph intimate acts of ritual and love. Suspended as hovering islands in the sky, these works challenge fixed notions of place and home, presenting instead a poetic meditation on the frenetic processes of world-building and the profound losses experienced during times of war. Her work honors the solace found in Ninh Binh's natural world. Immersed in the creation of new mythologies, she celebrates the shared histories, strength, and resilience that have bound her family and refugee communities together.