About the Artist
Jerry Truong is a Maryland-based interdisciplinary artist whose work deals with issues of
history and memory as they relate to the exercise of power and the residuals of trauma. Truong
received his B.A. in Studio Art from the University of California, Irvine and his M.F.A.
in Visual Arts from the University of California, San Diego, where he was the recipient
of the San Diego Fellowship. He has had solo exhibitions at the Arlington Art Center (Arlington,
VA, 2018), Northwestern University (Evanston, IL, 2015), Hood College (Frederick, MD, 2014),
Lycoming College (Williamsport, PA, 2014), and a two-person show at Hamiltonian Gallery
(Washington, DC, 2013). His work has been shown at venues such as the VAALA Cultural
Center (Santa Ana, CA, 2012), BlackRock Center for the Arts (Germantown, MD, 2012),
American University Museum (Washington, DC, 2013), Coohaus Art (New York, NY, 2014),
D.C. Arts Center (Washington, DC, 2014, 2015, 2017), Maryland Institute College of Art
(Baltimore, MD, 2015), CUE Art Foundation (New York, NY, 2015), and Flashpoint Gallery
(Washington, DC, 2017). He completed a two-year fellowship program at Hamiltonian Artists in
Washington D.C. in 2014 and was a member of the Sparkplug Collective from 2014 to 2016.
Currently he is a member of the Visual Arts Committee at D.C. Arts Center.
Jerry Truong website View Website
Artist's Statement
I grew up in a small town in California unaware of the horrors my parents experienced when they escaped from war-torn Vietnam by boat. My artistic practice draws on the incomplete and informal archive of images and memories passed down from my parents. The pieces in my recent series are large-scale drawings created from charcoal and incense ash from a Vietnamese ancestral altar. The drawings depict land, water, and sky, imagining the landscape that acted as both escape route and mortal threat to those fleeing their homeland. The full installation invokes the memory of two extended family members - my uncle and aunt - who did not complete the journey. Mixing the charcoal with incense ash was an act of commemoration, oscillating between mourning and hope. My intention with the work is to raise questions about trauma and history, offering the potential for a better understanding of identity and insight into the immigrant experience.
