Biography
Hang Huynh is an emerging artist who immigrated from Sai Gon in 2009 and has lived in San Jose ever since. Growing up in a broken family, her dad was a junky artist, and a single mother raised her. She wanted to break up the cycle of her traumatized family by embracing her mother's love in her artworks. Moreover, influenced by many people in her life in both places, Huynh wants to make her life and other people's life better through her artworks. She evolved her thinking and made art through mixed media through her passion for sculptures, oil paintings, and photography. As a teaching artist and class coordinator for Chopsticks Alley Art, Huynh acknowledges and appreciates the beauty of Southeast Asian cultures. She earned the President's Scholar 2021, 2023, Fire Arts Scholarship at San Jose State University in 2021, and Leadership in Arts AAPI Heritage in 2023. She earned a BFA in Spatial art and a minor in Photography at San Jose State University with Magna Cum Laude in 2023.
Artist Statement
I am an interdisciplinary artist who is interested in many different materials, such as oil painting, photography, and cardboard box sculpture. My works explore various materials because each medium has its own characteristics, and finding a way to conquer them drives me to work every day.
I absolutely adore using cardboard boxes in my artwork because they enable me to create installations that are beyond extraordinary. The texture and versatility of cardboard are genuinely awe-inspiring to me. In addition, by utilizing recycled materials, I'm doing my part in contributing to the environment. It's incredible how I can take something that was once deemed as trash and turn it into a work of beauty and purpose. Through my work with found objects, I have acquired a wealth of knowledge about the diverse properties of materials and how they can be employed in innovative and unique ways.
Overall, cardboard and other recycled materials possess a tremendous amount of potential that has yet to be fully explored, and I'm thrilled to continue exploring their possibilities. ​​Artists Ann Weber and Laurence Vallieres have huge significant inspirations for me in the process of making art in cardboard boxes.
Exhibition
2023
Following My Dream
SJSU JOFARB HERNÁNDEZ GALLERY, San Jose, California
2021
The Noodle Warms My Heart
Food Editorial Images, Taste of Home Project, San Jose, California.
2022
The Happiness of Being a Kid
XANH, Chopsticks Alley Gallery, San Jose, California
2019
The Silent Cupid
Student Show, San Jose City College, San Jose, California.