Phung-Tien Phan
German-Vietnamese artist Phung-Tien Phan (b. 1983 in Essen, DE) explores the constructed nature of identity and the societal roles we inhabit. In both her sculptural practice and her videos, she reflects on the production of the Self under the influence of consumer culture and the tension between aspiration and reality it feeds on.
Often drawing from her own biography, “Phung-Tien Phan” becomes both a character and an authorial entity, only to resonate uni- versally as she broaches themes of motherhood, her diasporic family history, youth, and artistic labour. Phan’s exhibition Kartoffel (2023) at Kunsthalle Basel navigates intergenerational memory, juxtaposing her father’s past with her son’s future and cultural tropes of masculinity. By disrupting linear narratives and fixed identities, Phan creates spaces where the self is both assembled and unravelled—an ongoing negotiation between expectation and resistance. Her works often draw from everyday domestic objects and lo-fi aesthetics that harbour a lightness and visual self-parodying humour. Embracing imperfection and allowing the messy reality of life to infiltrate art, she challenges artistic conventions and embraces open-endedness through continuous slippages and interstices.
Works
Phung-Tien Phan, Dino Phan 2, 2024
mixed media
30 × 40 × 70 cm
Phung-Tien Phan, Single Twin (Louis Vuitton), 2022
speaker, rocks, silk cloth, Louis Vuitton "Cerise" pochette, adhesive tape, headphones
112 × 44 × 39 cm
Phung-Tien Phan, STOP DREAMING, 2021
Schiefe Zähne, Berlin, DE
Installation view
Phung-Tien Phan,Toni 3, 2023
video, color, sound
Dimensions variabel / 2:37 min
Installation View at Kunsthalle Basel
Phung-Tien Phan, Ray 2, 2023
Aluminum, cable ties, cloth cord, digital print on paper, doll clothes, paper napkins, steel wire, stone, wood, wood oil
100 × 80 × 28 cm
Phung-Tien Phan, Model 2 (Maybe Fake Is What I Like), 2023,
Installation views at Biennale für Freiburg, Freiburg, DE
Phung-Tien Phan, Dino at Risk, 2021
Installation View: Found and Lost, Phung-Tien Phan, Marina Xenofontos, Goethe Institute Cyprus
Phung-Tien Phan, Café Chardonnay – alles nehmen, 2020
Kunstverein Harburger Bahnhof, Hamburg, Germany
Installation view
Phung-Tien Phan, No Title (Avenue/Emo), 2020
wood, veneered wood, glas, styrofoam, silicon, reels, sponge, Aesop bottles, lip gloss, lipstick, mini hair spray, comb, miniature „Dickmann“ toy packaging
241 × 74 × 56 cm, Soft-packed in 2 pieces
74 × 56 × 97 cm (Top), 74 × 56 × 144 cm (Bottom)
Detail
Phung-Tien Phan, OhNo Titel, 2018
varnish, silicon, fruits, cord, bottles
Installation View at Ædt, Düsseldorf, Germany
Phung-Tien Phan, bankett Group 1, 2017
Installation View at Belle Air, Essen, Germany
it's not me it's you, 2024
Jasmine Gregory, Chris Kaufmann, Sveta Mordovskaya, Phung-Tien Phan, Elif Saydam
Sentiment, Zurich, CH
Installation view
Phung-Tien Phan, Single Tower, 2022
Speaker, Rocks, Silk, Straw hat, OSB, speaker ear plug
130 × 42 × 42 cm
Phung-Tien Phan, Twenty-Something, 2021
Table, saw blade
78 cm ø 110 cm
Phung-Tien Phan, Kartoffel, 2023
Kunsthalle Basel, Basel, Switzerland
Installation view
Phung-Tien Phan, Ray 2, 2023
Aluminum, cable ties, cloth cord, digital print on paper, doll clothes, paper napkins, steel wire, stone, wood, wood oil
100 × 80 × 28 cm
Phung-Tien Phan, 1957/2022, 1961/2022, 2022
2 vintage lamps, 2 Vietnamese straw hats, 1 laser pointer, tape
Dimensions variable
Installation view
Found and Lost, 2022
with Marina Xenofontos, (curated by Lorenzo Graf)
Goethe-Institut Cyprus, Cyprus
Installation view
Phung-Tien Phan, Dino at Risk, 2021
Detail
Phung-Tien Phan, Café Chardonnay – alles nehmen, 2020
Kunstverein Harburger Bahnhof, Hamburg, DE
Installation View
Phung-Tien Phan, Café Chardonnay – alles nehmen, 2020
Kunstverein Harburger Bahnhof, Hamburg, DE
Detail
Phung-Tien Phan, OhNo Titel, 2018
varnish, silicon, fruits, cord, bottles
Installation View at Ædt, Düsseldorf, Germany
Phung-Tien Phan, Half Moon, 2019 (video still)
single channel video
10:34 min
Phung-Tien Phan
Trust Camp (normal), 2018
chair, Chicco mobile, fly hood, chandelier pendants, rose twigs
45 × 70 × 160 cm
Phung-Tien Phan, Single Twin (Louis Vuitton), 2022
Detail
Phung-Tien Phan, Ü40 (weiss auch nicht), 2021
vintage table, circular saw blade
87 × 120 × 80 cm
Phung-Tien Phan, Kartoffel, 2023
Kunsthalle Basel, Basel, Switzerland
Installation view
Phung-Tien Phan, Ray 2, 2023
Detail
Phung-Tien Phan, 1957/2022, 1961/2022, 2022
Detail
Modernistin, 2022
with Niklas Taleb
CAPC Musée d’Art Contemporain de Bordeaux, Bordeaux, France
Installation view
Phung-Tien Phan, Dino at Risk, 2021
Detail
KASTEN, 2020
Group show at Stadtgalerie, Bern, CH
curated by Luca Beeler and Cédric Eisenring
Installation view
Phung-Tien Phan, Lil Emo, 2019
Toy trucks and photographs in presspan collecting virtines with sliding glass panes 6 parts, each 60 × 80 × 9,5 cm
Phung-Tien Phan, Lil Emo, 2019
Detail
Phung-Tien Phan, OhNo Titel, 2018
varnish, silicon, fruits, cord, bottles
Installation View at Ædt, Düsseldorf, Germany
Exhibitions
Phung-Tien Phan
doesn't work
Project Native Informant, London, UK
January 18 – February 15, 2025
it's not me it's you
Jasmine Gregory, Chris Kaufmann, Sveta Mordovskaya, Phung-Tien Phan, Elif Saydam
Sentiment, Zurich, CH
February 17 – March 23, 2024
Phung-Tien Phan
Kartoffel
Kunsthalle Basel, Basel, Switzerland
August 25 – November 12, 2023
Phung-Tien Phan
STOP DREAMING
September 10 – October 14, 2021
Phung-Tien Phan
Café Chardonnay - alles nehmen
Kunstverein Harburger Bahnhof, Hamburg, Germany
August 1 – October 4, 2020
SAFETY FIRST
Phung-Tien Phan, Niklas Taleb
September 1 – 30, 2018
Was kostet die Welt
Anna- Lisa Högler, Phung-Tien Phan, Andrzej Steinbach
Belle Air, Essen, Germany
April 29 – May 20, 2017
Phung-Tien Phan
Bonner Kunstverein, Bonn, Germany
July 1 – August 16, 2016
Selected Press
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Artist Profile: Phung-Tien Phan, by Elaine Tam, Burlington Contemporary, 2024
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Low-Fi Home Mix, by Chang Qu, Spike Art Magazine, 2022
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Phung-Tien Phan: a trial of many outfits, by Elaine Tam, Doris Press, 2023
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Review of Phung-Tien Phan, STOP DREAMING, by Kristian Vistrup Madsen in Artforum, 2021
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Zwischen Social Media und Tradition, studio visit with Phung-Tien Phan, by Leonie Pfennig in Monopol Magazine, 2021
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Again, This Isn’t an Art-World Critique: Phung-Tien Phan by Stanton Taylor, Mousse Magazine, 2021
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Phung-Tien Phan Unfolds the Many Roles We Play in Life by Moritz Scheper, Frieze Magazine, 2020
Phung-Tien Phan
born 1983 in Essen, Germany
lives and works in Essen, Germany
Education
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2015-2017
Academy of Fine Arts, Düsseldorf, Germany; class of Prof. Christopher Williams
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2014
Academy of Fine Arts, Düsseldorf, Germany; class of Keren Cytter & Manuel Graf
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2009-2014
BA Photography, Folkwang University of the Arts, Essen, Germany
Solo and Two-Person Exhibitons
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2025
Kein Charakter, Schiefe Zähne, Berlin, DE
doesn't work, Project Native Informant, London, UK -
2023
Kartoffel, Kunsthalle Basel, Basel, Switzerland
is blue, Édouard Montassut, Paris, France -
2022
Modernistin, with Niklas Taleb, CAPC Musée d’Art Contemporain de Bordeaux, Bordeaux, France
Found and Lost, with Marina Xenofontos, (curated by Lorenzo Graf), Goethe-Institut Cyprus, Cyprus -
2021
Liste Art Fair Basel (with Drei, Cologne), Basel, Switzerland
STOP DREAMING, Schiefe Zähne, Berlin -
2020
Café Chardonnay - alles nehmen, Kunstverein Harburger Bahnhof, Hamburg, Germany
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2019
biste links oder frustriert, Drei, Cologne, Germany
Galeria Half Moon, with Whitney Claflin, Drei, Cologne, Germany -
2018
Safety First, with Niklas Taleb, Aedt, Düsseldorf, Germany
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2016
Peter-Mertes Stipendium, Bonner Kunstverein, Bonn, Germany
Group Exhibitions (Selected)
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2025
Echo's Hunger, Schiefe Zähne, Berlin, DE
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2024
YOURS, offsite organized by Schiefe Zähne, Paris, FR
A String of Toungless Bells, Francis Irv, New York, US
Follow the Feeling, Times Museum, Guangzhou, China
it's not you it's me, Sentiment, Zurich, CH -
2023
November, July, August, September, Tokyo, Japan
Slackers, TONUS, Paris, France
Interests, Schiefe Zähne, Berlin
Der pinkelnde Tod or what the dead do, Kunstverein Bielefeld, Bielefeld, Germany
Sneckdown, EACC, Espai d'Art Contemporani de Castelló, Castelló, Spain
Das Lied der Straße, Biennale für Freiburg 2, Freiburg
What are we in now?, The Wig, Curated by the Wig, Makroscope, Mülheim an der Ruhr -
2022
Autofiction, curated by Melanie Bühler, Galerie Fons Welters, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
How to (not) fit in, Villa Merkel, Esslingen, Germany
M I X E D F E E L I N G S, Sammlung Hildebrand, G2, Leipzig, Germany -
2021
Fassaden, Elvira, Frankfurt, Germany
July, August, September, organized by Carla Donauer & Martin Germann, Cologne, Germany
Open Office, Arcadia Missa, London, UK
Chernobyl Papers, organized by New Scenario, Chernobyl, Russia
Sweet Lies - Fiktionen der Zugehörigkeit, Ludwig Forum, Aachen
Fire demands its Fuel, curated by KM Temporaer, Drei, Cologne & Markus Lüttgen, Mönchengladbach, Germany
Tourism, curated by Luca Beeler, Richard Sides, Judith Welter, Kunsthaus Glarus, Switzerland
Taking my Thoughts for a Walk, Dortmunder Kunstverein, Dortmund, Germany
All Corner Made to be Leaned, Kunsthaus Rhenania, Cologne, Germany -
2020
should we get lunch, I want to burn this place down, Kunstverein Harburger Bahnhof, Hamburg, Germany
Bureau de Change, curated by Raoul de Klooker, Campoli Presti, London, UK
Kasten, curated by Luca Beeler and Cédric Eisenring, Stadtgalerie, Bern, Switzerland -
2019
Bandwagon Nr. 1, Pogo Bar, Kunstwerke (KW), Berlin
This sweet, will one day be yours, Werkhalle, Cologne -
2018
Trust Camp Vision, Essen, Germany
Junge Kunst am Moltkeplatz, Skulpturenpark Moltkeplatz, Essen
Trust Camp Club, Essen, Germany
I was a teenage medium, Glasgow Project Room, Glasgow, UK
Trust Camp Normal, Essen, Germany
Die Idee der besten schlechten Idee, 8. Salon, Hamburg, Germany
Inaugural Exhibition, Root Canal, Amsterdam, The Netherlands -
2017
Harmoniemusik und Vogelschießen, Shanaynay, Paris, France
Was kost die Welt, Belle Air, Essen, Germany -
2016
Black Dahlia Quest, Roland Garros, Essen, Germany
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2015
Landhaus Schwerte Ergste, curated by New Bretagne, Belle Air (Bel Ètage), Essen, Germany
Wasting Time on the Internet, Kunsthalle Düsseldorf, Düsseldorf, Germany
What a b what a b what a beauty, Off Raum, Frankfurt, Germany -
2014
living stills – Neue bewegte Bilder im Museum Folkwang, Museum Folkwang, Essen, Germany
Curatorial Projects
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2020
should we get lunch, i want to burn this place down, Kunstverein Harburger Bahnhof, Hamburg, Germany
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2018
Trust Camp, Exhibition Series, Essen, Germany
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2014- 2017
Co-founder of Belle Air, an artist run space, organized and curated by New Bretagne (Frieder Haller, Anna-Lisa Högler, Phung-Tien Phan, Alexander Schöpfel and Niklas Taleb), Essen, Germany
Belle Air / New Bretagne
Awards and Scholarships
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2022
Les Furtifs Residency Programme, CAPC Musée d’Art Contemporain de Bordeaux, Bordeaux, France
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2020
Kunststiftung NRW, Project Funding
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2018
Kunststiftung NRW, Project Funding (individual projects)
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2015
Peter Mertes Scholarship 2015, Bonn
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2012
Studio residency, Cité Internationale des Arts, Paris, France
Scholarship, Marianne Ingenwerth Stiftung, Essen