We are delighted to introduce our Phoenix Studio Award recipient for 2026, Duong Nguyen.

As a Studio Award holder, Duong will be part of the wider network of artists at Phoenix Art Space. The award has been established to celebrate talent, individuality, and original thinking within contemporary art practice. It aims to increase and strengthen equitable representation and amplify artistic voices from underrepresented groups to fully reflect the diversity of Brighton and Hove’s population.

The Phoenix Studio Award offers one year of support starting in March 2026  through rent–free studio space and other opportunities, to artists from under-represented groups and who experience intersecting forms of discrimination.

Developed in response to the need for affordable workspaces, the award aims to help artists to connect in a supportive studio environment. We want to facilitate creative possibilities, risk–taking, experimentation and exchange.

Artist bio:

Duong Thuy Nguyen (b.1991, Hanoi, Vietnam) is an interdisciplinary artist. Her practice explores memory, displacement, and overlooked histories. Through experimental strategies spanning sculpture, film, sound, and archival research, she examines how knowledge is produced and reshaped across generations, fostering critical dialogue around colonial legacies, marginalisation, and industrialisation. Nguyen holds an MA in Fine Art from Central Saint Martins, University of the Arts London, where she was awarded the Maison/0 This Earth Award and the FRESH TAKE 2023 Prize. Her work is held in the UAL Collection.

Recent exhibitions and residencies include the Vietnamese Archives Artist Residency: Library of Ancestral Knowledge at the Museum of the Home (London), Only Your Name (SLQS Gallery, London Gallery Weekend), New Art Exchange Open 24 (Nottingham), Enigma of Arrival (Royal College of Art, London), No Place Like Home (Museum of the Home, London), and The Space Between (TM Lightning Gallery, London).

She is currently preparing for a solo exhibition at Vin Gallery in Vietnam in September, where she will further develop her ongoing research into the legacy and intergenerational impact of Agent Orange.

Website: duongthuy-nguyen.com
Insta: @duonguyen.thuy