Artist Name: Martin Vuong
Residency Dates: May – July 2026
Born: 1997
Hometown: Ottawa, Canada
Lives & Works: Ottawa, Canada
URL: martinvuong.com | Instagram: @martinvuong
Education:
2015-2019 – Bachelors of Visual Arts, University of Ottawa
Bio/Statement:
Martin Vuong is an emerging artist specializing in figurative oil painting, with a focus on portraiture. His work explores heritage, memory, and cultural identity through a diasporic lens, drawing on his Vietnamese background and colonial history. He examines the intersection of personal and collective narratives, translating overlooked stories into visual form. His paintings combine realistic figures with symbolic and surreal elements. He works from archival photographs, historical advertisements, found images, and linguistic expressions, reinterpreting them to reflect on how histories are constructed and remembered. His recent work focuses on French colonialism in Vietnam and its lasting social and cultural impacts.
Martin’s solo exhibitions include: Elevation, Ben Franklin Place, Ottawa, Canada (2025) and Corpus Lingua, Gallery 115, Ottawa, Canada (2019). He has participated in group exhibitions such as Hold True / Reflets de vérité, Ottawa City Hall Art Gallery, Ottawa, Canada (2025); Within New Ground, Kunstraum, Brooklyn, USA (2025); Fungi, Brooklyn Waterfront Artists Coalition, Brooklyn, USA (2025); Small Pleasures, Propeller Gallery, Toronto, Canada(2025); Building Bridges, AXENÉO7, Gatineau, Canada (2024); Undercurrents, Arts Court, Ottawa, Canada (2024). He has participated in Kunstraum Artist Residency, Brooklyn, USA (2025) and City of Ottawa Artist Studio Program (2024–2027). Martin Vuong has received Ontario Arts Council Grant (2026); Canada Council for the Arts Grant (2025); City of Ottawa Seed Award (2024). His work is in the City of Ottawa Art Collection.
