Artwork Detail

Created while in residence with the Office of Immigrant Affairs. This project is part of the Los Angeles County Department of Arts and Culture’s Creative Strategist Program, placing artists in residence at LA County Departments.

Phung Huynh is a Los Angeles-based artist and educator whose practice includes drawing, painting, public art, and community engagement. Her work explores cultural perception and representation. Huynh challenges beauty standards by constructing images of the Asian female body vis-àvis plastic surgery to unpack how contemporary cosmetic surgery can whitewash cultural and racial identity. Her work of drawings on pink donut boxes explores the complexities of assimilation and cultural negotiation among Cambodian and Vietnamese refugees who have resettled in the United States. Phung Huynh has had solo exhibitions at Gagosian Gallery in Beverly Hills and the Sweeney Art Gallery at the University of California, Riverside. Her paintings and drawings have been exhibited nationally and internationally, including spaces such as the U.S. Embassy in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. She has also completed public art commissions for the Metro Orange Line, Metro Silver Line, the Los Angeles Zoo, and the Los Angeles General Medical Center through the Los Angeles County Department of Arts and Culture. Phung Huynh is Professor of Art at Los Angeles Valley College where her focus is on serving disproportionately impacted students. She is Chair of the Public Art Commission for the city of South Pasadena and has served as Chair of the Community-Based Art/Prison Arts Collective Advisory Council, which advises a vital program that provides art courses and workshops to underserved communities and prisons. She completed undergraduate coursework at the University of Southern California, received her Bachelor of Fine Arts degree with distinction from the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, and received her Master of Fine Arts degree from New York University.