Vân Khánh /vuhn-kang/ Curriculum Vitae

Artist Statement

My work maps the psychological landscape of trauma survivors, using oil paint as a somatic language. Vietnam’s war-ridden history produces a collective nervous system underpinned by a thousand years of colonialism and deep-rooted patriarchy. My research on PTSD neuroscience for war veterans and women survivors of domestic abuse prompted me to understand their bodies as both a war zone and a site of healing. I explore this suspended space between rupture and repair. I find parallels between the marginalization of plants and the perceived victimhood of these survivors. What appears passive or fragile may be adaptive and resistant. As survivors must metabolize violence and aggression, healing often involves decentralization and rootedness in the present, echoing a botanical logic.

My work unfolds as a nonlinear dialogue between paint and my embodied experiences. I take advantage of the versatile nature of oil paint to build different layers that suggest flesh, atmosphere, and memory. I allow figure and ground to emerge from the same atmosphere and dissolve into one another. Porous, diluted paint layers suggest the elusive nature of memory. Thick impasto strokes mimic the weight and fleshiness of the body. Sfumato transitions evoke the luminosity of atmosphere. All layers remain transparent, exposing past gestures. This radical honesty rejects illusion and allows the painting’s previous lives to remain active in the present. Through painting, I ask whether healing requires surrender and if reconciliation with the past is possible.