Andy Van Dinh was born and raised in Calgary, Alberta, Canada, where he earned his B.F.A. at the University of Calgary. He obtained his M.F.A. in painting at Hunter College. His work has appeared across New York in solo and group exhibitions as well as international festivals and exhibitions.
Recently, Van Dinh has used carbon paper and clothing patterns as a direct link to the idea of translation and transitions to reflect on his personal experiences with the Vietnamese Diaspora. He uses the physical actions they denote as important ways of creating metaphorical space and movement, through various materials that he modifies using drawing, and installation methods. The tracing paper is marked by the imprint of the shapes of the clothing patterns, which leaves translucent lines due to the removal of carbon from the tracing paper. Evidence of what was relocated remains. The original patterns and the copy are absent. The tracing paper becomes a stand-in for an in-between state, a state of alteration and oscillation.
Van Dinh used his time at MacDowell to work on large-format drawings on canvas and transfer paper to explore the connection between his Diasporic experience and his mother's, and exhibited the works at The Frost Art Museum in Miami, FL. Van Dinh was a recipient of an Alberta Foundation of the Arts Grant in 2023 to help fund his project.
