The Ogden Museum of Southern Art has opened a new exhibition of works by New Orleans ceramic artist Christian Dinh titled Nail Salon. Drawing from his personal experience as a first generation Asian American, Dinh created this series with the intention to redirect stigma and celebrate Vietnamese American identity by confronting racism, stereotypes and underrepresentation. Nail Salon will be on view through Sunday, January 16, 2022.

Nail Salon features 11 works, several of which are decorated porcelain casts of display hands typically seen in a nail salon. As many workers in the nail industry are immigrants who speak little or no English, the display hands serve as translator tools—or a means of communicating services to clients. On these sculptures, Dinh depicts different ideals of success in Vietnamese American culture such as Catholicism, Vietnamese New Year (Tết) and the family household. “These ideals are what bring the Vietnamese culture together in a country where they are the minority,” explains Dinh.

Vietnamese nail salons are often stigmatized, due to the association with lower-class minority work,” says Dinh. “However, I believe the Vietnamese nail salon to be one of the great success stories of the Vietnamese-American community.”

Yellow, porcelain and wood, by Christian Dinh (b. 1992)

“With his vessels, Dinh elegantly fuses high art and low art, tradition and kitsch, to convey a pop aesthetic of contemporary Vietnamese-American culture,” explains Bradley Sumrall, Ogden Museum’s Curator of the Collection. “With the cast hands of his Nail Salon works, Dinh confronts the stigma associated with the subject, reclaiming the space to convey a narrative of family values, hard work, sacrifice and success for his community.”

This special artist spotlight is part of FOCUS, a new series launched in February 2021 at Ogden Museum featuring the work of both established and rising regional artists making an impact with their artistry. The series serves as a platform for artists to share their work and the important messages it conveys. Ogden Museum hopes this ongoing initiative will illustrate the powerful role art plays in the complex and vibrant fabric that is the American South.

Born in 1992, Christian Dinh is a Vietnamese-American ceramic artist from Orlando, Florida. He received his B.F.A. in 2017 from the University of West Florida in Pensacola. While studying at UWF, Dinh was nominated for the International Sculpture Center’s Outstanding Student Achievement in Contemporary Sculpture Award. Relocating to New Orleans in 2018, Dinh is currently attending the M.F.A. program at Tulane University. Dinh’s ceramic and sculptural work has been in numerous exhibitions throughout the Gulf Coast, including And Now For Something New Vol. 2 at LeMieux Gallery in New Orleans and PHILIC / PHOBIC at the Pensacola Museum of Art.

The Ogden Museum is located at 925 Camp Street in the Warehouse District. For more information, visit here. Museum admission is free on Thursdays for Louisiana residents courtesy of The Helis Foundation.