Luxury Birdbath
Michelle Nguyen on Luxury Birdbath: "In all honesty, I was watching a lot of that Netflix show “Is It Cake?” at the time I started painting this like the dumb absorbent sponge I am. This particular painting speaks to the growing class gap and the wasteful excess of extravagant living. That being said, there is also a thread of humour here. I wanted the birdbath to be outrageous, like something you can get in a SkyMall catalogue.
I am also interested in the processes of our food systems. At what point does an animal become food and how we create dissonance between these two ideas in order to consume their flesh.
The figure on the bottom wears a shroud that is similar to the Vietnamese Buddhist deity Quan Am, the goddess of mercy, who is very similar to the Virgin Mary in her characterization and history. I had my mother retell her story from what she personally knows, and in a nutshell, it just seems as if all of her stories revolve around people using her as a scapegoat. Even when she is not to be blamed, she just bows her head and takes it. This is suppose to be evidence of her compassion, but for me, I just see a failure of the Bechdel test. On altars, she is usually depicted atop of whatever display she is apart of surrounded by fruit. This painting does the opposite. She sits on the very bottom in-between carcasses of meat. Her physical form is non-existent, just like the depiction of my grandmother in Cockfight Melee. The painting is meant to address how traditional modalities of mortality are invalid in our modern world."
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Canadian painter Michelle Nguyen is known for her richly detailed, allegorical compositions that explore themes of identity, mythology, and historical erasure. Her paintings are populated by human and animal figures in shifting, often surreal states, at times elegant, humorous, or grotesque, set within dreamlike environments that balance beauty with unease. Working primarily in oil and pastel, Nguyen builds dense, immersive worlds layered with symbolism, narrative, and art historical references.
Drawing from classical motifs, literature, and mythology, Nguyen’s compositions evoke a space between dream and nightmare, where meaning remains fluid and open to interpretation. Her expressive use of colour, combined with gestural mark-making and intricate detail, creates visually arresting works that reward sustained viewing.
Born in Toronto and now based in Montreal, Nguyen received her undergraduate degree in Environmental Design from the University of British Columbia in 2016, and is currently pursuing her Masters of Fine Art at Concordia University in Montreal. Her work has been exhibited in Canada and internationally, including in New York and London.
