Image: Blanton Museum of Art, Austin
The Blanton Museum of Art in Austin will present 'Contemporary Project 16: Tammy Nguyen' from January 17 to September 6, 2026. The exhibition brings together new work by multidisciplinary artist Tammy Nguyen, including paintings, prints, and a handmade artist book, as part of the museum’s Contemporary Project series spotlighting innovative contemporary artists.
Nguyen is known for work that combines visual density with literary and historical references. According to the Blanton, her layered compositions interweave figures, flora, fauna, and symbolic forms, and draw on literary references, Cold War-era science, and ecological imagery. The museum says the works in the exhibition explore how ambition, belief, and invention intersect, and how the drive to transcend human limits can slip into instability.
The exhibition also extends beyond Nguyen’s own new work. Alongside the paintings, prints, and artist book, she has selected objects from the Blanton’s collection to be shown in adjacent galleries. These works range from 18th-century engravings to mid-20th-century photography, creating a historical frame around the themes of power, progress, and the natural world that recur in Nguyen’s practice.
The artist has an established record in contemporary art, with solo exhibitions at the Sarasota Art Museum in 2024, the Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston in 2023, and the Brooklyn Public Library in 2022, among others. Her work has also appeared in international biennials and group exhibitions including the 12th Berlin Biennale in 2022, Greater New York 2021 at MoMA PS1, and Bronx Calling: The Third AIM Biennial at the Bronx Museum of the Arts in 2015. Nguyen, who was born and raised in San Francisco, earned her B.F.A. from Cooper Union in 2007 and her M.F.A. from Yale University in 2013.
The Blanton identifies the presentation as the sixteenth installment in its Contemporary Project series. It is organized by Hannah Klemm, curator of modern and contemporary art at the museum. Nguyen also publishes through her own imprint, Passenger Pigeon Press, and the Blanton notes that she is currently a professor of art at Wesleyan University in Connecticut.
'Contemporary Project 16: Tammy Nguyen' is included with admission and free for members. The Blanton Museum of Art is located at The University of Texas at Austin, and the exhibition runs Jan. 17 through Sept. 6, 2026.
