Work-in(g) Process

Manny Trinh

Moving across genres Manny Trinh’s mixed-media works explore intersections between built space, the natural landscape, and recollection. This installation of paintings and sculpture draw on his vivid memories of his childhood in Vietnam, conveying the beauty and resilience embedded within the architecture and ecologies that exist there as well as his evolving relationship to them. Four bodies of work comprise Work-in(g) Process: a series of paintings on canvas of examples of domestic cluster housing; a grid of small abstract paintings; a group of paintings on decommissioned passports that touch on notions of cultural hybridity; and a relatively new series of wooden sculptures that allow viewers to immerse themselves in the textures and physicality of the structures that are rendered on canvas. The range of materials that Trinh deploys allows him to delve deeper into the essence of form, texture and storytelling within his artistic practice while collapsing the space between different geographic location and terrain. Presenting dynamic works that underscore the ways in which urban and natural spaces are marked by human activity, Trinh encourages viewers of his work to more closely examine how their perceptions and experiences of place are informed by where they are situated in relation.