Press Releases
San Clemente, CA – Casa Romantica Cultural Center and Gardens, a nonprofit southern California cultural center, has commissioned Vietnamese-American visual artist Christine Nguyen to create a site-specific art installation for our Open Casa gallery program in the 2020/21 Season.
The exhibition, titled Constellations of the Blue Sun Moon Mountain, was set to open on December 1 in our on-site Art Gallery, but due to restrictions from COVID-19 it will now launch virtually. The Art Gallery will open to the public as soon as possible in accordance with state and county safety procedures.
“Christine Nguyen’s work takes excellent advantage of Casa Romantica’s site-specific appeal; notably art in a historical context and Southern California’s famous natural light,” says Executive Director Amy Behrens. “No matter how the public experiences her installation geographically, they will be uniquely connected to Casa Romantica’s ambiance and Nguyen’s artistic process.”
Christine Nguyen finds her inspiration in nature and uses scientific processes to create her art. The exhibition pieces for Constellations of the Blue Sun Moon Mountain were created using a photographic process called cyanotype, which is an early 19th century process where prints are exposed to sunlight that becomes a distinctive blue-toned color. Natural plant materials were also used to create shapes in these pieces.
“When Casa Romantica invited me to create a site-specific installation, I found it was a good fit,” says Nguyen. “I love integrating my work into historic settings and my art is often inspired by the ocean.”
About Christine Nguyen
Christine Nguyen was born and raised in California and currently resides in Denver, Colorado, and also works in Long Beach, California. She is a lover of animals, plants, and nature. She received her B.F.A from California State University, Long Beach and M.F.A from University of California, Irvine. Solo exhibitions of her work have been featured at the Hammer Museum (Project), Michael Kohn Gallery, Baik Art in Los Angeles, Crisp-Ellert Art Museum, St. Augustine, FL; 10 Chancery Lane Gallery, Hong Kong; Pataphysical Society PDX, Portland, Oregon, and Galerie Quynh, Vietnam. Her work has also been included in group exhibitions at the Kunsthalle zu Kiel, Kiel, Germany; Laguna Beach Art Museum, Laguna Beach, CA; Pasadena Museum of California Art, Pasadena, CA; Kleefield Art Museum, Long Beach, CA; San Art, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam; Cemeti Art House, Yogyakarta, Indonesia; Esther M. Klein Gallery, University Science Center, Philadelphia, PA; IMAC, Tijuana, Mexico; Sprueth Magers Projekte, Munich, Germany; Dancing Elephants Project, Bogota, Columbia and Churner and Churner, New York.
Her work has been featured in Los Angeles Times, The Korea Times, LA Weekly, OC Weekly, KCET Artbound and Los Angeles Magazine. Her awards include an Artist Fellowship with the Arts Council for Long Beach, the Korea Arts Foundation of America Biennial Arts Award, and the John and Marcia Goldman Foundation Artful Harvest Circle Fellowship for residency at the Djerassi Resident Artist Program.
