HIGHLIGHTING VIETNAMESE ARTISTS
Photo by Ashley Jaye Williams
Vagabond celebrates the expansiveness of the Vietnamese experience in America, rooted in the DMV. Almost 50 years after the end of the war, it’s important to capture the current perspectives of the diaspora because we are not solely defined by the trauma of war and displacement. The mainstream perception of Vietnamese Americans has remained unchanged for decades, rooted in the suffering of the war in Vietnam, yet nothing about our community is static. Vagabond offers counter narratives from the 1.5 and 2nd generation of this underrepresented community while highlighting multi-cultural intersectionality.
Vagabond is curating the DMV’s first Vietnamese American exhibition from January 10 – March 7, 2025 as a 2025 DC Commission on the Arts & Humanities Exhibition Grantee! 2025 marks the 50-year anniversary of the end of the war in Vietnam. The mainstream perception of Viets has remained unchanged for decades, yet nothing about our community is static.
SAVE THE DATE for JAN 16, 2025 opening reception from 5-7pm at the CAH gallery at 200 i Street, SE, Washington, DC 20003.
FROM the creators
“There is no one Vietnamese American experience, and doing all these interviews just proves that there’s so much diversity even within that category.”
—Philippa Pham Hughes
The End of the Pink Line Project Project, Cherry Blast V (2013) | Photo by Bud Wilkinson
inside vagabond zine
VAGABOND Zine features interviews with 13 Vietnamese artists, mostly based in the DMV and East Coast of the United States.
FROM THE creators
“It’s liberation through self-love and vulnerability. There is an honesty there. There is an openness to be wrong there. There is a forgiveness there.”
—Anthony Le
Vagabonds (2023) at Touchstone Gallery
inside vagabond zine
Each artist was commissioned to write a letter to their younger selves as an act of self-care.
VAGABOND
FEATURING VIETNAMESE ARTISTS