Ones to watch: Tony Tran

Outstanding artists to have on your radar right now. Charlotte Middleton writes.

Emerging contemporary artist Tony Tran uses the mediums of sculpture and photography to produce heightened, imaginative compositions reminiscent of religious imagery. Born in Sydney to immigrated Vietnamese parents, Tran graduated with a Bachelor of Fine Arts from the University of NSW and has exhibited around the state and in Victoria, as well as in London and Athens. Drawing on experiences of cultural alienation and displacement, he collapses the myths and aesthetics of disparate influences to create assemblages where figures like faceless angels and humanoid deities are enfolded in ornamental flourishes. Tran received Honorable Mention for his series Ornafanum-Vacui at the Tokyo International Foto Awards in 2022 and was a finalist in the It’s a Small World sculpture exhibition prize. Accolades growing, the artist has also been selected for the Kite Prize for Contemporary Art, and as a finalist in the Burwood Art Prize 2023.

Above: Tony Tran, Ornafanum-Vacui I, 2022. Digital photography Giclée print on paper,
53.4 x 73.4cm. Courtesy: the artist.

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