“Love and Lust” in Chris Nguyen’s Smith Gallery exhibition

Students passing the Edith Renfrow Smith `37 Student Art Gallery will see explosions of vibrant pinks, blues and purples spreading across the six large canvases on the gallery walls, thanks to Chris Nguyen’s `27 debut solo exhibition, “Lust for Love.” The gallery opening on the evening of Oct. 7 was crowded, as students, professors and family members came to view and celebrate Nguyen’s work.

The paintings, all 24 by 48 inches or larger, were created with acrylic, ink and liquid pouring medium on canvas, and explore themes of queer identity. The wall plaques help viewers understand the context behind the abstract paintings, which examine Nguyen’s personal experiences of feeling out of place growing up queer and Asian American. 

Various pieces explore themes of family expectations, beauty standards, difficult childhood experiences, or the American dream. Several of the paintings are inspired by music — such as “Everywhere,” named after the song by Fleetwood Mac, or “Love is Misery,” which Nguyen created while listening to the song “Ultraviolence” by Lana Del Rey. 

Nguyen began creating the art in Professor Andrew Kaufman’s Abstract Painting class last year and went on to create several more pieces over the subsequent summer. The class encouraged Nguyen to focus on how the process of making art can create meaning, and Nguyen experimented with unconventional techniques like pouring, staining, liquid paint guns and painting over his own previous artwork.

Kaufman said, “The whole class was experimental because I was getting them to work much larger than probably they were comfortable with, and I got them using tools that they’d never used before, like I just brought in recyclable hoses and stuff that they started to beat against the canvas.”

Lust for Love opening night on Monday, Oct. 7, 2024. (Meilynn Smith)

Nguyen described his artistic evolution prior to experimenting with abstraction, saying, “With my art, I was doing really technical things. I was working with graphite and pens and creating drawings, and I became skilled at that. And then sometime in my senior year, I decided my work wasn’t really fun. And then there was kind of just this rebirth of discovering fluorescent pink and these crazy bright colors that I really became obsessed with.”

Nguyen’s parents, Hang Trinh and Greg Ball, flew in from Washington state for the exhibition’s opening night. Trinh teared up and said she felt emotional seeing her son’s work on display. Although both engineers, Nguyen’s parents said that they recognized their son’s artistic talent and dedication from an early age. 

“In preschool and elementary school, he started drawing the same figures, practicing over time. You would buy him a notepad and it’s 20 pages, and he would redraw the same thing over and over again,” Trinh said. “We would say this is really nice, why are you recreating it? And he just wasn’t satisfied yet, he would say this is not yet what I want.”  

Kaufman also observed Nguyen’s dedication to his art, saying “Every time I came into the studio, he was there working, doing pours, moving things around, making decisions, thinking about things.”

Nguyen is involved in several other artistic endeavors and has more work on the horizon. He is currently the Graphics Editor for Grinnell Underground Magazine (GUM) and a photographer for GOGUE, as well as working remotely as a creative intern for photographer Teresa Flowers.  

“Lust for Love” is Nguyen’s first solo show. Seeing his work exhibited and experiencing the response to it so far, he said, “Every time I walk past it, it’s never really empty … It’s really cool to see people that I don’t even know in there, looking at the works and reading the labels. I mean, my artist statement was about sharing acceptance and love in society, and I feel like my works are kind of able to express those ideas.”