Felisa Nguyen is a Canadian artist of Vietnamese descent, living and working in New York City. Her practice is rooted in lived experience as a dispossessed body in the imperial core.
Nguyen’s work is concerned with the dark matter—the untranslatable, the ambiguous, the feelings of loss and absence—in between documented accounts of the past. She examines the malleability of collective and personal memory surrounding orientalism, colonialism, the family, and incarceration, through objects which range from explicitly to ambiguously culturally coded. In her work, reflective surfaces, material with shifting opacities, and image manipulation and abstraction reveal the pivoting functions of objects which simultaneously obscure and uncover illegible histories.
Nguyen’s work is concerned with the dark matter—the untranslatable, the ambiguous, the feelings of loss and absence—in between documented accounts of the past. She examines the malleability of collective and personal memory surrounding orientalism, colonialism, the family, and incarceration, through objects which range from explicitly to ambiguously culturally coded. In her work, reflective surfaces, material with shifting opacities, and image manipulation and abstraction reveal the pivoting functions of objects which simultaneously obscure and uncover illegible histories.
She holds a BFA in New Media at Toronto Metropolitan University, and an MFA in Fine Art from Parsons School of Design at The New School.
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CV
Education
2025 | MFA Fine Art. Parsons School of Design at The New School, New York, New York, USA.
2023 | BFA New Media. RTA School of Media at Toronto Metropolitan University, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
Work Experience
2025 | Teaching Assistant, Parsons School of Design, The New School, New York, NY, USA.
Course: “Core Seminar 6: Entrepreneurship”
2024 | Teaching Assistant, Parsons School of Design, The New School, New York, NY, USA.
Course: “Core Topics 3D: Omni Maker”
Course: “Core Seminar 5: Artist and Studio”
2024 | Research & Artist Assistant, Andrea Geyer. New York, New York, USA.
2024 | Research & Artist Assistant, Lan Thao Lam. New Haven, Connecticut, USA.
2024 | Digital Tools Technician, The New School. New York, New York, USA.
2022 | Designer, Red Nucleus. Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
Commissions
2023 | Live Drawing, Samsung, Toronto, ON, and Montreal, QC, Canada.
2020 | Illustration, Humber College, Toronto, ON, Canada.
2019 | Illustration, CONTACT Magazine, TESL Ontario, Toronto, ON, Canada.
Awards & Grants
2023 | TD FCCP Education Foundation New Horizon Scholarship, Toronto, ON, Canada.
2023 | Design + Technology Lab and Design Fabrication Zone Grant, Toronto, ON, Canada.
Fabrication
Programming
CV
Education
2025 | MFA Fine Art. Parsons School of Design at The New School, New York, New York, USA.
2023 | BFA New Media. RTA School of Media at Toronto Metropolitan University, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
Selected Exhibitions
2025 | Re: Turning, Anna-Maria and Stephen Kellen Gallery, New York, New York, USA.
2023 | Odyssey, Northern Contemporary Gallery, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
2025 | Re: Turning, Anna-Maria and Stephen Kellen Gallery, New York, New York, USA.
2023 | Odyssey, Northern Contemporary Gallery, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
Work Experience
2025 | Teaching Assistant, Parsons School of Design, The New School, New York, NY, USA.
Course: “Core Seminar 6: Entrepreneurship”
2024 | Teaching Assistant, Parsons School of Design, The New School, New York, NY, USA.
Course: “Core Topics 3D: Omni Maker”
- Assisting class instruction specializing in CAD, rendering, rapid prototyping, and metalworking
Course: “Core Seminar 5: Artist and Studio”
- Leading in-depth critiques designed to have undergraduate students understand and reflect on each other’s artistic approach, ideas presented in their work, overall methodology, material and spatial realization, and to situate the work within contemporary cultural contexts
2024 | Research & Artist Assistant, Andrea Geyer. New York, New York, USA.
- Printmaking, embroidery, digital archive, studio assistant
2024 | Research & Artist Assistant, Lan Thao Lam. New Haven, Connecticut, USA.
- Architectural drafting and archival floor plans of historic site
2024 | Digital Tools Technician, The New School. New York, New York, USA.
- Managing Google Calendar
- Operating and monitoring machines (PRUSA i3 Mk3s+, Artillery Sidewinder X1, Trotec and Epilog laser)
2022 | Designer, Red Nucleus. Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
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Powerpoint Design
- User Interface Design
- Web Design
- Infographics
- Illustration
- Brand Identity & Concepts
Commissions
2023 | Live Drawing, Samsung, Toronto, ON, and Montreal, QC, Canada.
- Demonstrations using Samsung flip phone and stylus for traveling interactive pop-up experience
2020 | Illustration, Humber College, Toronto, ON, Canada.
- Series of illustrations to accompany online-learning module
2019 | Illustration, CONTACT Magazine, TESL Ontario, Toronto, ON, Canada.
- Cover illustration for April issue of educational magazine for English Second Language instruction
Awards & Grants
2023 | TD FCCP Education Foundation New Horizon Scholarship, Toronto, ON, Canada.
2023 | Design + Technology Lab and Design Fabrication Zone Grant, Toronto, ON, Canada.
Fabrication
- 3D printing
- Arduino
- CAD
- Drafting
- Hand tools
- Laser cutting
- PCB design
- Power tools
- Small board electronics
- Soldering
- Woodworking
Programming
- HTML
- OpenCV
- p5.js
- Processing
- Touch Designer
- English (Native)
- Vietnamese (Proficient)
- French (Elementary)