We cannot make whole again the fragments of
the past—
but if after hope comes action, then the future
depends on what we do in the here and now.
—Tiffany Chung
Vietnamese American artist Tiffany Chung pointedly reveals histories that have too often been overlooked or intentionally ignored. Chung is attuned to the ways that knowledge replicates power, erasing as much as it records. Seeking to fill in the gaps left out of official reports, she draws on the Japanese concept of ma, the emptiness or space between things, to challenge historical narratives written by those who hold power or influence. She incorporates statistical data, extensive archival research, and documentation with people’s lived experiences to reconstruct more complete stories of historical events and to create new systems of representation that include what has been left out and what remains unknowable.
Chung investigates landscapes and migratory networks marked by climate change and wars, colonialism and nation building, post-industrialization and urbanization by tracing the relationships between living beings, the built environment, nature, and forces of power. She mines the histories of single sites to reveal systems of power and cycles of transformation—natural or humanmade, resilient or destructive—across stretches of geological time. Conversely, she traces the complex interconnections of people, animals, cultures, flora, and fauna as they move around the world. Together, her projects unravel the often-hidden entanglements of history, politics, economics, and ecology that accrue in landscapes, shape networks, and spark conflicts.
This exhibition, the first comprehensive survey of Tiffany Chung’s career, showcases the intricately drawn or embroidered maps that she is best known for alongside her sculptures, videos, performances, and installations. Bringing together traces, fragments, and voices that have been silenced, her art questions not only how history is told but also who tells that history, who belongs within it, and who and what are excluded. Ultimately, Chung utilizes this reckoning with history to powerfully inform our future actions.
Tiffany Chung: indelible traces is organized by the Art, Design & Architecture Museum, UC Santa Barbara; generous support is provided by the Terra Foundation for American Art and the Henry Luce Foundation. Additional support provided by UCSB’s Art Equity Commons, The Billy Rose Foundation, and the AD&A Museum Council. This activity is made possible by the voters of Minnesota through a Minnesota State Arts Board Operating Support grant, thanks to a legislative appropriation from the arts and cultural heritage fund. Additional general operating support is generously provided by Ameriprise Financial.
Image credit (top): Tiffany Chung, Global Spice Trade: routes from ancient times to the age of exploration/exploitation, 2024–2025. Embroidery on fabric, 140 x 380 cm (55 x 149 ½ in.). Courtesy of the artist, Kiang Malingue Gallery, Hong Kong | New York, Max Estrella Galería, Madrid, and RYAN LEE Gallery, New York. Image by Andrea Rossetti. © Tiffany Chung
Tiffany Chung (born 1969, Đà Nẵng, Việt Nam; lives in Houston, Texas) is an interdisciplinary artist globally recognized for her research-driven practice exploring the intersections of history, culture, and geography on both local and global scales. Working across diverse media—including cartography, embroidery, painting, photography, sculpture, video, text, and music—her projects trace shifts in cultural, geopolitical, and natural landscapes shaped by the upheavals of war, displacement, disaster, and global trade. Chung earned a BFA in Photography at California State University, Long Beach (1998), and an MFA at the University of California, Santa Barbara (2000). She is currently an inaugural KAVAH Fermata Fellow at the University of Chicago. Previously, she was a Mellon Arts & Practitioner Fellow at the Yale Center for the Study of Race, Indigeneity, and Transnational Migration (RITM) (2021) and served as Jane Lombard Fellow for Art & Social Justice at the Vera List Center, New School (2018–20).
Chung has exhibited her artwork widely in the United States and abroad. Recent solo exhibitions include Vietnam, Past Is Prologue at the Smithsonian American Art Museum (2019) and Rise Into the Atmosphere at the Dallas Museum of Art (2023–25), as well as presentations at Lumiar Cité/Maumaus, Lisbon, Portugal (2019); Johann Jacobs Museum, Zürich, Switzerland (2018); Statens Museum for Kunst, Copenhagen, Denmark (2016); Kenpoku Art at the Hitachi City Museum, Ibaraki, Japan (2016); and Lieu-Commun, Toulouse, France (2014). Her work has been featured in major exhibitions and biennials throughout the world. Exhibitions include, most recently, Breath(e): Toward Climate and Social Justice, at the Hammer Museum, Los Angeles, as part of PST Art (2024–25); Are you Ready? Surge to 2030: Enhancing Ambition in Asia-Pacific to Accelerate Disaster Risk Reduction, UNDRR Asia-Pacific Ministerial Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction (2024); After Rain: Diriyah Contemporary Art Biennale (2024); For the Living, part of Beyond Granite: Pulling Together at the National Mall in Washington, DC (2023). Biennials include the 56th Venice Biennale, Sharjah Biennial, Biennale of Sydney, Gwangju Biennale, Bienal de Cuenca (Ecuador), EVA International (Ireland). Her work has also been presented at the Museum of Modern Art (New York), the British Museum (London), Schirn Kunsthalle (Frankfurt, Germany), the Nobel Peace Center (Oslo, Norway), Louisiana Museum of Modern Art (Humlebæk, Denmark), Centre de Cultura Contemporània de Barcelona, M+ museum (Hong Kong), 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art Kanazawa (Japan), and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (San Francisco), among others. Chung has received the Asia Arts Game Changer Award (2020), the Asian Cultural Council Grant (2015), and Sharjah Biennial Artist Prize for Exceptional Contribution (2013).
Terra Foundation for American Art
Henry Luce Foundation
Minnesota State Arts Board Legacy Grant logos
Ameriprise Financial
