Born in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, Xuân Pham immigrated to Omaha, Nebraska, at the age of seven. Her artistic practice is shaped by a legacy of war and her experiences as an immigrant. Working with layers and grids, Pham traces the interconnections of trauma, migration, and race within Asian American and immigrant communities. Her artworks explore how the political and psychological dimensions of grief influence racial identity formation in the United States.

In this exhibition, Pham experiments with ephemeral materials from the everyday experiences of Vietnamese immigrants—such as rice paper, pandan, and brooms—to reflect on the legacies of displacement, migration, and diaspora. In the artist’s hands, these quotidian materials are rendered as political and metaphorical devices for understanding not only loss and mourning but also hope. Through song and object, Pham seeks possibilities for healing and repair in the aftermath of colonial violence and displacement. She states, “I feel it is essential to continue this body of work and exploration at a moment of intense global backlash against immigrants, which obfuscates the role of imperial violence in creating conditions for displacement.”

Xuân Pham’s artworks challenge the notion of finality. Pham does not regard her work as finished; instead, she sees it as an ongoing process where people and nature contribute as co-creators, influenced by forces beyond our control, such as decay and human interaction. Pham views the exhibition space as an extension of her studio—a place not just for viewing but for collaborative creation, destruction, and renewal.