Lanvi T. Nguyen is a Vietnamese-American multidisciplinary artist based in Northern Virginia whose practice moves between photography, painting, and ritual language. An alumnus of Virginia Commonwealth University’s School of the Arts, Nguyen has spent decades documenting environments both familiar and foreign, from the intimate textures of the macro world to expansive landscapes abroad in the Asian South Pacific.
Her work is rooted in the belief that every image carries unspoken words and teachings—thresholds of memory, stillness, transmutation, and devotion—that render her art as visual philosophy. Her investigation of the physical world focuses less on what is seen through the lens of a camera, and more on what is made visible by it. Each piece is not only a study of the physical world, but a ceremonial act of making the unseen visible. Nature, ever in flux, becomes a living collaborator: time, space, and surface compress and expand into offerings of presence.
In her newer works, Nguyen integrates ceremonial philosophy with reinterpreted spiritual wisdom, transforming images into vessels of energy and invocation, portals of mythic cadence. This process is both alchemical and meditative: she deconstructs the whole into elements, then reweaves them into cycles of becoming. The result is a dialogue between the tangible and the immaterial, where devotion and resilience take form in ritual scrolls, poetic sequences, and visual pieces that embody ceremony.
With over two decades of art-making, Nguyen’s practice is not simply about creation—it is about living ceremony. Whether through photography, painting, music, or poetic scrolls, hers is a life dedicated to deciphering the vast, enigmatic landscape grain by grain, breath by breath, in a state of wakefulness and reverence.
EQUIPMENT
nikon fm10
nikon d80
hasselblad 500c
nikon d3s
COMMISSIONS WITH A TWIST
Artist in Residence, Literally
Experience live art in a whole new way—co-create a work of art with Lanvi in your home, studio or business!
You provide the inspiration, environment, theme, colors and medium, and witness the magic unfold as the artist interprets and creates a piece that you retain upon completion. Oil on canvas? A pile of trash and a hot glue gun? A truckload of bottle caps? Each experience is custom-packaged and priced to the client’s specifications and include all materials (yours or hers), travel and accommodations.
Let’s collaborate! Contact us to design your personalized experience.
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