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Lot Essay
A vivid early work by Julien Nguyen, Adaptation (2015) presents an Armageddon in lush, luminous colours. It is painted on wooden panel, marbled with fine brushstrokes and whorls of fine sgraffito. A five-winged, orchid-shaped figure hovers in an inky-blue sky shot with flashes of a pale light, while a sprawling, dragon-like form writhes below. A lightning bolt plunges to earth. We see this apocalyptic scene from behind a high wall, painted in a glowing amber that contrasts with the darkness ahead. It is topped with a green-paved loggia that evokes both the elegant settings of early Renaissance Italian art and the straight, functional arches of modern architecture. At the bottom left is a black exclamation mark. Is this a vision of future doom, or a scene from a comic book? Adaptation deftly combines the ideas and aesthetics of Christian tradition with science fiction and fantasy, bringing high art into dialogue with popular culture.
Now based in Los Angeles, Nguyen was born to Vietnamese parents in Washington, D.C. in 1990. As a teenager, he was less interested in fine art than in video games. ‘I wanted to become a concept artist’, he says, ‘who designs all the characters and spaceships and buildings’ (J. Nguyen, quoted in K. Dwyer, ‘An Artist Who Blurs Video Games and Italian Renaissance’, The New York Times, 20 August 2021). Nguyen studied at the Rhode Island School of Design and Frankfurt’s celebrated Städelschule. After a brace of group and solo shows, he had a critical breakthrough when two of his paintings were prominently featured in the Whitney Biennial in 2017. Executive Function and Executive Solutions (2017) deftly intimated the front-page layout of The New York Times but replaced the cover images with visions of discord and calamity: a dancing devil, robed skeletons, a top hat-wearing man grabbing a nude figure by the neck. ‘Here was the paper of record,’ writes Zack Hatfield, ‘that bastion of both compassion and complacency, reimagined as comic book, as peeling altarpiece, as final draft of History’ (Z. Hatfield, ‘Openings: Julien Nguyen,’ Artforum, March 2019).
Nguyen’s work has a vital presence beyond the gallery walls. He was commissioned by Spanish fashion house Loewe to create artwork for their Autumn/Winter 2023 Paris Fashion Week catwalk show. He has frequently collaborated with the avant-garde label Ottolinger, creating prints inspired by Renaissance art. Adaptation shares its striking polychromy with these collaborations. Its wood-panel support is a material more associated with the religious works of the quattrocento than the canvas of the modern painter. This grants it a sacral aspect. ‘What is so lovely about the historical techniques that I find myself drawn to, Nguyen says, ‘are these things that people have troubleshooted over centuries; through constant experimentation you arrive at incongruous combinations of materials and ways of doing things’ (J. Nguyen, quoted in T. Solomon, ‘An Introduction to Artist Julien Nguyen, the Latest Inspiration for Fashion Powerhouse Loewe’, ArtNews, 24 January 2023). Adaptation sees Nguyen alchemise traditional modes and techniques into something entirely new.
Now based in Los Angeles, Nguyen was born to Vietnamese parents in Washington, D.C. in 1990. As a teenager, he was less interested in fine art than in video games. ‘I wanted to become a concept artist’, he says, ‘who designs all the characters and spaceships and buildings’ (J. Nguyen, quoted in K. Dwyer, ‘An Artist Who Blurs Video Games and Italian Renaissance’, The New York Times, 20 August 2021). Nguyen studied at the Rhode Island School of Design and Frankfurt’s celebrated Städelschule. After a brace of group and solo shows, he had a critical breakthrough when two of his paintings were prominently featured in the Whitney Biennial in 2017. Executive Function and Executive Solutions (2017) deftly intimated the front-page layout of The New York Times but replaced the cover images with visions of discord and calamity: a dancing devil, robed skeletons, a top hat-wearing man grabbing a nude figure by the neck. ‘Here was the paper of record,’ writes Zack Hatfield, ‘that bastion of both compassion and complacency, reimagined as comic book, as peeling altarpiece, as final draft of History’ (Z. Hatfield, ‘Openings: Julien Nguyen,’ Artforum, March 2019).
Nguyen’s work has a vital presence beyond the gallery walls. He was commissioned by Spanish fashion house Loewe to create artwork for their Autumn/Winter 2023 Paris Fashion Week catwalk show. He has frequently collaborated with the avant-garde label Ottolinger, creating prints inspired by Renaissance art. Adaptation shares its striking polychromy with these collaborations. Its wood-panel support is a material more associated with the religious works of the quattrocento than the canvas of the modern painter. This grants it a sacral aspect. ‘What is so lovely about the historical techniques that I find myself drawn to, Nguyen says, ‘are these things that people have troubleshooted over centuries; through constant experimentation you arrive at incongruous combinations of materials and ways of doing things’ (J. Nguyen, quoted in T. Solomon, ‘An Introduction to Artist Julien Nguyen, the Latest Inspiration for Fashion Powerhouse Loewe’, ArtNews, 24 January 2023). Adaptation sees Nguyen alchemise traditional modes and techniques into something entirely new.