Watercolor, vinyl paint, pastel, silkscreen printing, rubber stamping, hot stamping, and metal leaf on paper stretched over wood and gator board panel, 60 x 84 in. Courtesy the artist and Lehmann Maupin, New York, Seoul, and London. Photo: Daniel Kukla.
Watercolor, vinyl paint, pastel, silkscreen printing, rubber stamping, hot stamping, and metal leaf on paper stretched over wood and gator board panel, 48 x 70 in. Courtesy the artist and Lehmann Maupin, New York, Seoul, and London. Photo: Daniel Kukla.
Photo: Ryan Gamma.
Photo: Ryan Gamma.
Tammy Nguyen: Timaeus and the Nations
October 20, 2024–January 19, 2025
Courtesy the artist and Lehmann Maupin, New York, Seoul, and London. Photo: Axel Dupeux.
This exhibition is made possible, in part, with generous support from:
Platinum Sponsors
Judy and Fred Fiala
Gold Sponsors
Charlotte and John Suhler
Silver Sponsor
Gerald and Sondra Biller
Huisking Foundation
Audrey and Walter Stewart
Special thanks to Lehmann Maupin Gallery
Courtesy the artist and Lehmann Maupin, New York, Seoul, and London. Photo: Axel Dupeux.
Sarasota Art Museum proudly presents Timaeus and the Nations, a solo exhibition by multidisciplinary artist Tammy Nguyen (American, born 1984), unveiling a new body of work that delves into themes of world order, nationhood, and the boundaries of national identity. Nguyen is celebrated for her intricately layered paintings that weave together figurative imagery, lush tropical vegetation, abstract forms, and symbols. Her compositions, with their ornate surfaces and layers of familiar yet subversive motifs, invite viewers to engage with complex historical narratives and philosophical reflections.
In Timaeus and the Nations, Nguyen draws inspiration from Plato’s dialogue Timaeus and the global maritime practice of “Flags of Convenience,” where merchant vessels register in one country but fly the flag of another for regulatory benefits. Through this lens, Nguyen explores the making and unmaking of national identity and the pursuit of an elegant world order in the 21st century. Her paintings depict a spectrum of figures in positions of leadership, from statesmen to pirates, as she investigates the concept of Demiurge, the divine craftsman in Timaeus, who created the cosmos, the physical world and its beings using mathematics, reason and faith. By reimagining and merging these seemingly disparate ideas from past and present, Nguyen offers a profound inquiry into the intersections of geopolitics, colonial legacies, and the construction of nationhood.
Anchoring the exhibition is Nguyen’s striking artist book, 2:4:8, handcrafted from the sewing pattern of a vintage naval uniform and designed to open in three ways. Made with hand-marbled mulberry paper, it contains legal documents, haikus, and musical notes, underscoring the philosophical questions at the heart of her new oeuvre—world order, leadership, nationhood, and the arbitrary construction of national identity through symbols. Visitors are invited to explore the inner pages of this book and engage with its layered narrative that shifts between historical fact and poetic interpretation.
Nguyen further examines the moral ambiguities and contradictions of nationhood and global trade by creating 23 new embroidered tapestries from the colors and patterns of the flags of 46 participating nations. These tapestries, embroidered with symbols and excerpts of national anthems, highlight the arbitrary construction of nationhood cultivated through the display of national symbols. Visitors can listen to Nguyen’s reimagined and reconstructed pseudo-anthems on the Museum’s website or through QR codes placed next to the embroidered flags in the gallery.
A 2023 Guggenheim Fellow, Nguyen is an Assistant Professor of Art at Wesleyan University, with an MFA from Yale University. Based in Easton, CT, she has exhibited widely, with recent solo exhibitions of Nguyen’s work organized by Lehmann Maupin, London (2024); Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston, MA (2023); Lehmann Maupin, Seoul, South Korea (2023); Brooklyn Public Library, Brooklyn, NY (2022); Nichido Contemporary Art, Tokyo, Japan (2022); Tropical Futures Institute, SEA Focus, Singapore (2022); and Smack Mellon, Brooklyn, NY (2021).
Learn more about her extensive biography below.
This exhibition is organized by Sarasota Art Museum of Ringling College of Art and Design and curated by Rangsook Yoon, Ph.D., senior curator at Sarasota Art Museum.
2:4:8, A book about the forming and flowing of nations
2024
Bookcloth, millboard, various colors of mulberry paper, onion skin paper, 27 lb. Hahnemühle Ingres Paper, acrylic inks, silk screening, metal plate
Revolutions of the Same and the Other
Click on the 23 sets of 46 flags of convenience referenced in Nguyen’s embroidered tapestries and listen to her piano recordings of reconstructed pseudo-anthems, created from the corresponding national anthems of the two countries in each set.
Antigua Barbuda and The Marshall Islands
Antigua Barbuda and The Marshall Islands
Barbados and Cyprus
Barbados and Cyprus
Belize and Mongolia
Belize and Mongolia
Bolivia and Tanzania
Bolivia and Tanzania
Cambodia and Honduras
Cambodia and Honduras
Cameroon and Bahamas
Cameroon and Bahamas
Cayman Island and Malta
Cayman Island and Malta
Cook Island and Myanmar
Cook Island and Myanmar
Curacao and Eswatini
Curacao and Eswatini
France and Faroe Islands
France and Faroe Islands
Germany and Madeira
Germany and Madeira
Gibraltar and Sri Lanka
Gibraltar and Sri Lanka
Jamaica and Lebanon
Jamaica and Lebanon
Liberia and Togo
Liberia and Togo
Mauritius and Vanuatu
Mauritius and Vanuatu
Moldova and Bermuda
Moldova and Bermuda
Netherlands Antilles and Palau
Netherlands Antilles and Palau
North Korea and Georgia
North Korea and Georgia
Panama and Sierra Leone
Panama and Sierra Leone
Saint Kitts and Grenadines
Saint Kitts and Grenadines
San Marino and Gabon
San Marino and Gabon
Sao Tome and Principe and Equatorial Guinea
Sao Tome and Principe and Equatorial Guinea
