Mai Nguyễn-Long: Kôgábịnô

Curated by Adam Porter

21 October - 7 April 2024

Mann-Tatlow Gallery

Kôgábịnô is a double mistranslation and sanitised alter-moniker for the recurring motif of Vomit Girl in Nguyễn-Long’s practice. This character is a visceral medium for the artist’s inquisitive and ongoing negotiation with the messy edges of histories, cultural identity, family values, diasporic stories and nuances.

The sculptures featured in this exhibition have emerged from Nguyễn-Long’s reconnection with Vietnam’s art histories through family objects. Grounded in the materiality of clay they playfully invoke the power to transcend restrictive paradigms. Notwithstanding multiple guises, Vomit Girl is in essence Vigit, or the artist’s invented ‘Goddess of Infected Tongues for all those who have lost their mother tongue’.

Mai Nguyễn-Long is represented by Michael Reid Sydney + Berlin.

Exhibition catalogue

Download the catalogue for this exhibition below.

Mai Nguyễn-Long: Kôgábịnô PDF, 10845.5 KB

Sponsored by

Dulux in partnership with the Wollongong Art Gallery is proud to support the Mai Nguyễn-Long’s Kôgábịnô Exhibition. Dulux welcomes the creativity and inspiration that this event inspires in our community.

Page image: Mai Nguyen-Long, Vigit Hefeco 6 (no balls in hands), 2023, smooth terracotta fired to 1120, 46 x 26 x 19cm. Photographed by Bernie Fischer.