“My paintings are a response to the visual excitement found in life; my motifs revolve around daily rhythms, human activity and small moments. I am interested in finding that space between perceptual painting and something more abstract, and using colour relationship and shapes to describe the effects of light.”
September 2025
And another surprise and completely thrilled to have won the 2nd prize for the Eckersley’s Art and Craft Prize for my soft pastel monotype “Yellow Morning”. Huge thanks to Eckersley’s, the Hazelhurst Arts Centre and judges Carla Hananiah, Natalie O’Connor and Alan Daniel Jones.
June 2025
Delighted to be awarded the Maldon EMERGING PORTRAIT PRIZE award for my painting “Short-sighted Self Portrait as Roman Statue’, judged by artist Graeme Drendal. Thank you to the Maldon Artist Network, Hillary Markus Recordati Foundation and Cascade Art Gallery.
““Short-sighted self-portrait as Roman statue” is a painting about perception and seeing. It was interesting to me that without my glasses, I am looking harder than ever. Glasses, symbolising vision, are removed to represent a moment of clarity, vulnerability, and even mystery, allowing me to present a version of myself that is both familiar and abstract. Roman statues, with their blank eyes devoid of pupils, convey an unspoken depth of perception – a tension between what is seen and unseen, external and private.”
https://www.maldonartistnetwork.org.au
April 2022
Delighted to announce my first solo show ‘Between Brick & Crimson’, which Michael Reid Southern Highlands in Berrima.
The catalogue: https://michaelreidsouthernhighlands.com.au/exhibition/between-brick-and-crimson/
From the catalogue:
Between Brick and Crimson is an exhibition of new paintings by painter, Anh Nguyen, an artist who in recent years has risen to prominence through her consistent participation in some of Australia’s most prestigious art prizes. Anh Nguyen is presenting her first major solo exhibition at Michael Reid Southern Highlands following a string of successful shows at Michael Reid Northern Beaches. Working closely with Director, Amber Creswell Bell, Nguyen has amassed audiences both locally and internationally. Her work has recently been published in Creswell Bell’s STILL LIFE (Thames and Hudson).
Anh Nguyen is a painter who possesses both skill and vision. In her works, Nguyen compresses space to enhance the dynamic energy in her painted crowds and street scenes. Lively flickering brushstrokes and contrasting colours coalesce in a collection of still life, landscape and narrative paintings.
August 2020
Absolutely over the moon to have won this year’s Lyn McCrea Memorial Drawing Prize! The biggest thanks to the McCreas, Noosa Regional Gallery and judge Michael Zavros. I really enjoyed reading the judge’s thoughts as follows:
“When I judge a prize I try to remove any parameters to my assessment of the work, attempting to put aside my own interests, politics, tastes. The shortlist and finally the winning work emerges because I keep looking at it. It’s as simple as that. It asks me to look again and again and then I try to understand why.
The winning drawing by Anh Nguyen is an arresting self portrait. Perhaps drawn from a photograph or a mirror, the subject sits at a table dwarfed by her studio and surrounding apparatus. It’s an unusual composition, the figure just left of centre regarding us impassively, one half of her face completely in shadow. There is a joy to the drawing gesture here. Oil pastel, charcoal and watercolour or a wash combine to deliver a rich gestural surface echoing the studio itself and its myriad media. But this isn’t careful rendering, Nguyen delivers more with less. It’s a spare and immediate drawing.” – Michael Zavros
https://www.noosaregionalgallery.com.au/exhibition/lyn-mccrea-memorial-drawing-prize-2020/
October 2019
February 2019
Thrilled to share the news that I am the winner of the Basil Sellers Art Prize 2019. It was a most special weekend down in Moruya with my family, and I am so very honoured (and surprised!!)
Further information:
My interview from opening night with ABC Reporter Peta Doherty and also with Basil Sellers (warning – dodgy mobile phone recording!)
https://aboutregional.com.au/the-bas-opens-in-moruya-what-a-night-for-art-in-eurobodalla/