Antonius-Tín Bui
they/them Polydisciplinary Artist New Haven, CT
About The Artist
Antonius-Tín Bui is a spontaneous shapeshifter and polydisciplinary artist invested in the possibilities of portraiture, ritual, craft, and performance. Bui's ever-changing relationship to queerness, gender, and Vietnamese-ness greatly informs the way they create. They are the child of Paul and Van Bui, two Vietnamese refugees who sacrificed everything to provide a future for their four kids and extended family. Born and raised in the Bronx, they eventually moved to Houston before pursuing a BFA at the Maryland Institute College of Art. Since graduating in 2016, they have received fellowships from the Vermont Studio Center, Kala Art Institute, Tulsa Artists Fellowship, Halcyon Arts Lab, Houston Center for Contemporary Craft, Yaddo, Anderson Center at Tower View, Jentel, Monson Arts, and Fine Arts Work Center. They have exhibited at various institutional, private, public, and underground venues, such as the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery, Pennsylvania College of Art & Design, Satellite Art Fair Austin, Blaffer Art Museum, and the Urban Institute for Contemporary Arts.
About The Work
The reductive process deconstructs the traditional white canvas in order to both metaphorically and physically carve out space for narratives which are so often omitted from whitewashed histories. The use of paper considers both the archival documentation used to reconcile formerly lost AAPI narratives, while also drawing from the importance across Vietnamese culture. Allusions to the spiritual significance of Joss paper, an incense paper used both to imitate value and as a form of blessings, position each work almost as an offering to honor queer communities, Bui’s subjects in particular.
Bui utilizes the transformational properties of their medium to excavate a narrative that no longer places trauma and displacement at the forefront. Rather, each delicately woven work inhabits the body in a way that honors a reinvigorated sense of identification while echoing a fluid notion of interdependence and community.
The limits of my language are the limits of my world, 2021, Hand-cut paper, ink, pencil, paint, Framed dimensions:84 x 56 in, Monique Meloche Gallery, Photo Credit: Robert Chase Heishman of Bob.
Holding onto these fragments, all these years (The Protectors), 2021, Hand-cut paper, ink, pencil, paint, Varied Dimensions, Monique Meloche Gallery, Photo Credit: USC Pacific Asia Museum
