The Fundació Joan Miró and the Stavros Niarchos Foundation have awarded this year’s Joan Miró Prize to Vietnamese American artist Tuan Andrew Nguyen. The Saigon-born Nguyen, who lives and works in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, will receive €50,000 (roughly $54,000) and, in 2024, a solo exhibition at the Barcelona institution. The artist triumphed over a shortlist of Tala Madani, Frida Orupabo, Mika Rottenberg and Haegue Yang.
Nguyen’s family came to the US in 1979 as refugees in 1979 when the artist was three. The experience informs his practice, which encompasses video, film, and sculpture and addresses themes of collective memory, displacement, and colonization. Among the topics he has investigated are the war in Vietnam, the historic ties between Vietnam and Senegal, and the attempts of the Aboriginal Ngurrara community to reclaim its land from the Australian government. The prize jury in a statement lauded Nguyen for “the social, political and environmental relevance of his work, which is always presented with an astoundingly unique artistic vision. His subtle touch allows him to address some of the most difficult episodes in modern history with playful and poetic clarity.”
The Miró Prize, launched in 2007, is awarded biannually to contemporary artists whose work embodies the same spirit of exploration, innovation, commitment, and freedom that marked the Surrealist artist’s life and work. To date, the honor has gone to Olafur Eliasson (2007), Pipilotti Rist (2009), Mona Hatoum (2011), Roni Horn (2013), Ignasi Aballí (2015), Kader Attia (2017) and Nalini Malani (2019). No prize was awarded in 2021, as the art world struggled to exit the receding Covid-19 pandemic.
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