Opening Night Reception: On Refuge: 50 Years of Recomposition

The Vietnamese American Arts & Letters Association (VAALA) proudly presents On Refuge: 50 Years of Recomposition through its Gallery Beyond Walls initiative, commemorating the 50th anniversary of the Vietnamese American community. On view from October 4 to October 24, 2025 at the Orange County Center for Contemporary Art, the exhibition brings together 15 multi-generational Vietnamese artists whose works explore the evolving landscape of Vietnamese identity in America.

Featuring artists Angela Anh Nguyen, An Hà, Anh Dao Ha, Anh Nguyen, Ann Lê, Đan Lynh Phạm, Dinh Q. Lê, Felisa Nguyễn, Hùng Lê, Huyen Tran, Phung Huynh, Tuan Andrew Nguyen, and Vivian Tran, On Refuge reflects on the past five decades while envisioning the future. Through painting, photography, textiles, media, and mixed media installations, the exhibition engages with “how the Vietnamese American community is carried, embodied, and continued”.

Curator Audrey Bui describes the exhibition’s thematic focus: “Recomposition, a strong theme in the shown works, manifests in different homages to family, community, physical cities, photographs, textiles, media, and lasting, but also, changing legacies. There is an intentional blurring and distortion of familial structures, traditions, and cultural objects that both manipulate and investigate memory in a way that prompts generative conversations on language and inheritance.”

On Refuge: 50 Years of Recomposition invites viewers to engage with works that hold legacy and resistance hand in hand, provoking the honoring and reworking of collective memory while reflecting on how the Vietnamese American story is carried forward through continuity and change.