Việt Lê gave a Visiting Writer Reading at the Arts Research Center in April 2023, part of the Spring 2023 Flash Reading Series.
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(link is external): 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(link is external); Crab Orchard Review(link is external); American Quarterly; Amerasia Journal; Art Journal; Newsweek Asia; and the anthologies Writing from the Perfume River(link is external); Strange Cargo(link is external); The Spaces Between Us(link is external); Modern and Contemporary Southeast Asian Art(link is external); among others.
Recent solo exhibitions include lovebang! (link is external)(Kellogg University Art Gallery, Los Angeles 2016), vestige(link is external) (H Gallery Bangkok 2015), tan(link is external) nÁRT cõi lòng | heARTbreak!(link is external) (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 (link is external)(BACC), Thailand; Civitella Ranieri, Italy; Shanghai Biennale, China; Rio Gay Film Festival(link is external), Rio de Janeiro, Brazil; the Smithsonian, Washington, D.C., among other venues. White Gaze(link is external), an art book (poetry, images, performance) in collaboration with w/ Latipa [née Michelle Dizon] and Faith Wilding is published by Sming Sming Books & Objects (link is external)and Candor Arts(link is external) (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!(link is external)(Centre A, Vancouver, BC, 2005); and co-curated humor us (link is external)(Los Angeles Municipal Art Gallery, LA, CA, 2008), transPOP: Korea Việt Nam Remix(link is external) (Seoul, Sài Gòn, Irvine, San Francisco, 2008-09) and the 2012 Kuandu Biennale (link is external)(Taipei). He has co-edited special issues ofBOL Journal(link is external)(Việt Nam and Us, 2008(link is external)) and Reflections: A Journal of Writing, Service Learning, and Community Literacy(link is external) (Syracuse University Press, 2008). He is a reviews co-editor (with Laura Kina) of Asian Diasporic Visual Cultures (link is external)and the Americas(link is external)(Brill(link is external)) and a board member of the Queer Cultural Center(link is external).
Lê has co-edited special issues of Asian American Literary Review ([Re]Collecting Vietnam(link is external), 2015), BOL Journal(link is external) (Việt Nam and Us, 2008(link is external)) and Reflections: A Journal of Writing, Service Learning, and Community Literacy(link is external) (Syracuse University Press, 2008). He has also co-edited with Professor Lan Duong(link is external) a special issue of Visual Anthropology(link is external) (Routledge 2018). He is a reviews co-editor (with Prof. Laura Kina(link is external)) of Asian Diasporic Visual Cultures (link is external)and the Americas(link is external) (Brill(link is external)). He was a nominated finalist for the 2009 Sovereign Art Foundation Art Prize(link is external)(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)(link is external).
Lê has received fellowships from Fulbright-Hays (Việt Nam), William Joiner Center(link is external), Civitella Ranieri Foundation(link is external) (Italy)(link is external), Fine Arts Work Center(link is external)(USA), Center for Khmer Studies (Cambodia), Art Matters Foundation(link is external), International Institute for Asian Studies(link is external) (Leiden University, the Netherlands), Camargo Foundation (link is external)(Cassis, France), and PEN Center USA.(link is external)
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(link is external). Lê is an Associate Professor in the History of Art and Visual Culture(link is external) Program, and Chair of Visual & Critical Studies(link is external) Graduate Program at California College of the Arts. His writing has been translated into Chinese, German, Khmer and Vietnamese.