Artist: Tony Nguyen
Exhibition: Neoteny
Gallery: Dr. Maxine Merlino Gallery
Media: Metal
Facebook.com/RoboticTony
Website: HTTPS://ELTIGRESITE.WORDPRESS.COM/
Instagram: elll_tigre
Tony is an undergraduate student at California State University Long Beach and is working on his BFA in the metal program. He has been at school for 5 and a half years and is a metal smith.
Each of his art work is made out of some type of metal. One of his pieces is painted in a way to give the viewers the illusion that it is made out of wood but in fact it is metal. Some of his art pieces have numbers, which represents his brothers. Some of his art works are colored in black, brown, gold,silver or copper.
Tony’s art work has a story that relates to his childhood and personal experiences. Tony mentions that people will not understand a persons art if the artist is not their to tell the story of the art. For example a person can see an apple but will not understand how it is art if they do not know the story. Tony states that “the goal of the show is to allow the viewers to create stories with what they perceive, create a sense of nostalgia for their childhood/youth and finally bring a smile to their faces”. His work is influence by people and philosophies that he grew up with.
This exhibit was very interesting and is the first artist conversation that i did that has to do with metal art. Tony was also a great guy, and explain his art work clearly and also gave us the background about it. Tony’s art work is amazing and his story telling is great too. I agree with Tony, that in order to understand the art we have to know the background and story of that art piece.
Christian Gallo 