Việt Lê is an artist, writer, and curator whose work over the past twenty years examines spiritualities, trauma, representation and sexualities with a focus on Southeast Asia and its diasporas, as well as intersectional coalitions. Dr. Lê is the author of Return Engagements: Contemporary Art’s Traumas of Modernity and History in Sài Gòn and Phnom Penh (Duke University Press, June 2021). Arguing for an ethics of return, this book is a political-economic critique of the nation-state, wars then and now, representation, and global art markets. Lê has been published in positions: asia critique; Crab Orchard Review; American Quarterly; Amerasia Journal; Art Journal; Newsweek Asia; and the anthologies Writing from the Perfume River; Strange Cargo; The Spaces Between Us; Modern and Contemporary Southeast Asian Art; among others.
Recent solo exhibitions include lovebang! (Kellogg University Art Gallery, Los Angeles 2016), vestige (H Gallery Bangkok 2015), tan nÁRT cõi lòng | heARTbreak! (Nhà Sàn Collective Hà Nội). Lê has presented his work at The Banff Centre, Alberta, Canada; UCLA Hammer Museum, Los Angeles, USA; DoBaeBacSa Gallery, Seoul, Korea; Japan Foundation, Việt Nam; 1a Space, Hong Kong; Bangkok Art & Cultural Center (BACC), Thailand; Civitella Ranieri, Italy; Shanghai Biennale, China; Rio Gay Film Festival, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil; the Smithsonian, Washington, D.C., among other venues. White Gaze, an art book (poetry, images, performance) in collaboration with w/ Latipa [née Michelle Dizon] and Faith Wilding is published by Sming Sming Books & Objects and Candor Arts (February 2018; 2nd edition, Sming Sming Books, 2019) and is in the collections of the Whitney Museum, Victoria & Albert Musem and the library collections of Harvard, Brown, and Yale universities, among others.
Lê curated Miss Saigon with the Wind (Highways, Santa Monica, 2005) and Charlie Don’t Surf!(Centre A, Vancouver, BC, 2005); and co-curated humor us (Los Angeles Municipal Art Gallery, LA, CA, 2008), transPOP: Korea Việt Nam Remix (Seoul, Sài Gòn, Irvine, San Francisco, 2008-09) and the 2012 Kuandu Biennale (Taipei). He has co-edited special issues ofBOL Journal(Việt Nam and Us, 2008) and Reflections: A Journal of Writing, Service Learning, and Community Literacy (Syracuse University Press, 2008). He is a reviews co-editor (with Laura Kina) of Asian Diasporic Visual Cultures and the Americas(Brill) and a board member of the Queer Cultural Center.
Lê has co-edited special issues of Asian American Literary Review ([Re]Collecting Vietnam, 2015), BOL Journal (Việt Nam and Us, 2008) and Reflections: A Journal of Writing, Service Learning, and Community Literacy (Syracuse University Press, 2008). He has also co-edited with Professor Lan Duong a special issue of Visual Anthropology (Routledge 2018). He is a reviews co-editor (with Prof. Laura Kina) of Asian Diasporic Visual Cultures and the Americas (Brill). He was a nominated finalist for the 2009 Sovereign Art Foundation Art Prize(Hong Kong). His poetry collection was a 2013 Crab Orchard Review First Book Award Semi-Finalist. He received the inaugural Prudential Eye Prizefor Best Writing on Asian Contemporary Art (2015).
Lê has received fellowships from Fulbright-Hays (Việt Nam), William Joiner Center, Civitella Ranieri Foundation (Italy), Fine Arts Work Center(USA), Center for Khmer Studies (Cambodia), Art Matters Foundation, International Institute for Asian Studies (Leiden University, the Netherlands), Camargo Foundation (Cassis, France), and PEN Center USA.
Lê received his M.F.A. from the University of California, Irvine, where he has also taught Studio Art and Visual Culture courses. He received his M.A. and Ph.D. from the University of Southern California and was as a postdoctoral fellow at Academia Sinica, Taipei. Lê is an Associate Professor in the History of Art and Visual Culture Program, and Chair of Visual & Critical Studies Graduate Program at California College of the Arts. His writing has been translated into Chinese, German, Khmer and Vietnamese.