Phong Bui

In addition to fostering the creative energy behind The Brooklyn Rail, Bui publishes Rail Editions, a venture that features experimental poetry, fiction, artist interviews, and art criticism, and has published titles on artist Ron Gorchov, art critic Irving Sandler, poet Luigi Ballerini, and a collection of poems by Florbela Espanca, the first collection of the Portuguese modernist poet to appear in English.{{Cite web|url=https://store.brooklynrail.org/store/category/83|title=Brooklyn Rail : Store : Rail Editions|website=store.brooklynrail.org|access-date=2018-04-19}}

Bui contributes essays, reviews, and interviews to the Brooklyn Rail, and creates portraits of each month's featured interviewees.{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2015/11/02/business/media/the-hustle-of-publishing-art-news-in-the-postprint-era.html?_r=0|title=The Hustle of Publishing Art News in the Postscript Era|newspaper=The New York Times|date=November 2, 2015 |accessdate=2016-11-01 |last1=Somaiya |first1=Ravi }}{{cite web|last=Bui |first=Phong |url=http://www.brooklynrail.org/contributor/phong-bui |title=The Brooklyn Rail Contributor |website=Brooklynrail.org |date= |accessdate=2016-11-01}} He has written articles for Matador Magazine, Art in America, and Riot of Perfume, among others,{{cite web|author= |url=http://www.phongbui.net |title=Phong Bui |publisher=Phong Bui |date= |accessdate=2016-11-01}} as well as essays for exhibition catalogues and books on artists. In addition to his writing, he is the producer and host of the program Off The Rail, hosted by Clocktower Productions's Clocktower Radio, where he interviews artists, art historians, and art writers.{{cite web|url=http://clocktower.org/series/off-the-rail |title=Off The Rail |website=Clocktower.org |date= |accessdate=2016-11-01}}

In 2018, Bui launched the River Rail, a biannual publication devoted to the environment, climate change, and the "urgent subject of nature: its beauty, abuse, and changing climate that is gravely affecting every aspect of the planet’s ecosystem, and our lives."{{Cite web|url=https://brooklynrail.org/special/RIVER_RAIL/publishersmessage/Dear-Friends-and-Readers-River-Rail|title=Dear Friends and Readers|website=The Brooklyn Rail|date=January 18, 2018 |access-date=2018-04-19}}

Bui has curated over 50 monographic and group shows since 2000, including the first anniversary commemoration in 2013 of Hurricane Sandy: Come Together: Surviving Sandy, Year 1, "a sprawling, encompassing, inspiring exhibition of works by some 300 artists," according to Roberta Smith of the New York Times.{{cite news|author=Roberta Smith |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2013/12/07/arts/design/come-together-surviving-sandy-samples-300-artists.html?_r=0 |title='Come Together: Surviving Sandy' Samples 300 Artists |newspaper=The New York Times |date=2013-12-06 |accessdate=2016-11-01}} The show was ranked as New York's #1 exhibition in 2013 by Jerry Saltz of New York Magazine.{{cite web|last=Saltz |first=Jerry |url=http://nymag.com/arts/cultureawards/2013/top-10-art-shows/ |title=The 2013 Culture Awards - Jerry Saltz on the 10 Best Art Shows |website=Nymag.com |date=2013-12-08 |accessdate=2016-11-01}} In 2013 he initiated the Rail Curatorial Projects which aims to curate exhibitions as social experiments. In 2014, Bui curated Bloodflames Revisited which featured the work of more than two dozen artists at Paul Kasmin Gallery{{cite web |url=http://blogs.artinfo.com/artintheair/2014/06/26/phong-bui-talks-curating-at-kasmin-and-his-first-exhibition-since-surviving-sandy/ |title=Phong Bui Talks Curating at Kasmin and His First Exhibition Since "Surviving Sandy" | in the Air: Art News & Gossip | ARTINFO.com |accessdate=2014-09-05 |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20140807190215/http://blogs.artinfo.com/artintheair/2014/06/26/phong-bui-talks-curating-at-kasmin-and-his-first-exhibition-since-surviving-sandy/ |archivedate=August 7, 2014 |df=mdy }}{{cite web|url=http://www.paulkasmingallery.com/exhibitions/2014-06-26_bloodflames-revisited |title=Bloodflames Revisited Curated By Phong Bui |publisher=Paul Kasmin Gallery |date= |accessdate=2016-11-01}} and Spaced Out: Migration to the Interior at Red Bull Studios, featuring nearly 40 artists.{{cite web|author=Daniel Maidman |url=http://www.huffingtonpost.com/daniel-maidman/the-psychodelic-phong-bui_b_5943552.html |title=The Psychodelic: [sic] Phong Bui Discusses What He Curated and How He Curated It |publisher=Huffington Post |date=2014-12-07 |accessdate=2016-11-01}}{{cite web|author=Noah Dillon |url=http://www.artcritical.com/2014/10/21/david-carrier-on-spaced-out/ |title=Total Work of Art: "Spaced Out" at Red Bull Studios |website=Artcritical.com |date= October 21, 2014|accessdate=2016-11-01}}{{cite web|last=Schultz |first=Charlie |url=http://www.artslant.com/9/articles/show/41060 |title=ArtSlant |website=ArtSlant.com |date= |accessdate=2016-11-01}}{{cite web |url=http://www.redbullstudios.com/newyork/events/spaced-out-migration-to-the-interior-curated-by-phong-bui |title=Spaced Out: Migration to the Interior Curated by Phong Bui | Red Bull Studios New York |accessdate=2014-11-07 |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20141105214742/http://www.redbullstudios.com/newyork/events/spaced-out-migration-to-the-interior-curated-by-phong-bui |archivedate=November 5, 2014 |df=mdy }} In 2015, Bui organized a two-part exhibition entitled Intimacy in Discourse: Reasonable and Unreasonable Sized Paintings taking place at both Mana Contemporary{{cite web|url=http://www.manacontemporary.com/2015-intimacy-in-discourse/ |title=2015 Intimacy in discourse — Mana Contemporary |website=Manacontemporary.com |date= |accessdate=2016-11-01}} and the SVA Chelsea Gallery.{{cite web|url=http://www.sva.edu/events/events-exhibitions/intimacy-in-discourse-unreasonable-sized-paintings |title=School of Visual Arts | SVA | New York City > Intimacy in Discourse: Unreasonable Sized Paintings |website=Sva.edu |date= |accessdate=2016-11-01}} His most recent curatorial project was a two-part exhibition with Mana Contemporary in 2017, titled Occupy Mana: Artists Need To Create On the Same Scale That Society Has the Capacity To Destroy & Friends In Solidarity, Year 1.{{Cite web|url=http://curatorialprojects.brooklynrail.org/occupy-mana|title=Occupy Mana {{!}} Brooklyn Rail Curatorial Projects|website=curatorialprojects.brooklynrail.org|language=en|access-date=2018-04-19}} This exhibit included over 60 artists addressing social and political issues, including human rights and equality, immigration, foreign relations, the environment, and climate change, and continued Bui's curatorial activation of Peter Lamborn Wilson's concept of the Temporary Autonomous Zone, "a space wherein the fluctuation of artistic energy establishes the flow of information, and in so doing aligns—however fleetingly—a great collective imagination. Here one finds the potential for awakening one’s perception and agency of self-discovery." The show has since seen new realizations in two different spaces. Firstly in May 2019 as part of the Venice Biennale titled, Artists Need To Create On the Same Scale That Society Has the Capacity To Destroy: Mare Nostrum, an exhibition co-curated with art historian and independent curator Francesca Pietropaolo.{{Cite web|url=https://venice.brooklynrail.org/?hp|title=The Rail at the 2019 Venice Biennale|website=Brooklyn Rail|language=en|access-date=2019-07-24}} Secondly the show has had its most revisitation at the Colby College Museum of Art in July 2019 titled, Occupy Colby: Artists Need to Create on the Same Scale That Society Has the Capacity to Destroy, Year 2.{{Cite web|url=https://www.colby.edu/museum/exhibition/occupy-colby-artists-need-to-create-on-the-same-scale-that-society-has-the-capacity-to-destroy-year-2/|title=Occupy Colby: Artists Need to Create on the Same Scale That Society Has the Capacity to Destroy, Year 2 {{!}} Colby College Museum of Art|website=Colby College|language=en-US|access-date=2019-07-24}}

Bui served as curatorial advisor at MoMA PS1 from 2007 to 2010 where he organized monographic exhibitions of artists including Robert Bergman, Jonas Mekas,{{cite web|url=http://momaps1.org/exhibitions/view/134 |title=Exhibitions: Jonas Mekas: The Beauty of Friends Being Together Quartet |publisher=MoMA PS1 |date=2007-04-23 |accessdate=2016-11-01}} Joanna Pousette-Dart,{{cite web|url=http://momaps1.org/exhibitions/view/149 |title=Exhibitions: Pip Chodorov, Harriet Korman, and Joanna Pousette-Dart |publisher=MoMA PS1 |date=2007-10-09 |accessdate=2016-11-01}} Tony Fitzpatrick, Harriet Korman, and Jack Whitten,{{cite web|url=http://momaps1.org/exhibitions/view/143 |title=Exhibitions: Jack Whitten |publisher=MoMA PS1 |date=2007-10-15 |accessdate=2016-11-01}} and numerous group exhibitions including Irrational Profusion: Nicole Cherubini, Marc Leuthold, Joyce Robins, Peter Schlesinger{{cite web|url=http://momaps1.org/exhibitions/view/151 |title=Exhibitions: Irrational Profusion: Nicole Cherubini, Marc Leuthold, Joyce Robins, and Peter Schlesinger |publisher=MoMA PS1 |date= |accessdate=2016-11-01}} and Orpheus Selection: Nicola Lopez & Lisa Sigal.{{cite web|url=http://momaps1.org/exhibitions/view/160 |title=Exhibitions: Orpheus Selection: Nicola López & Lisa Sigal |publisher=MoMA PS1 |date= |accessdate=2016-11-01}} Bui has curated other exhibitions at various galleries including recent work by Ron Gorchov at Cheim & Read{{cite web|url=http://www.cheimread.com/exhibitions/2012-03-29_ron-gorchov/?view=pressrelease |title=Ron Gorchov - Exhibitions |date= |accessdate=2016-11-01}} as well as Exquisite Fucking Boredom, an exhibition of Polaroid images by artist and writer Emma Bee Bernstein at Microscope Gallery.{{cite web|url=http://www.microscopegallery.com/?page_id=6595 |title=Micriscope Gallery |website=Microscopegallery.com |accessdate=2016-11-01}}

File:View of 'Social Environment 2" by Phong Bui, photograph by Zach Garlitos.jpg

A graduate of the University of the Arts in Philadelphia, PA,{{cite web|url=http://artcriticism.sva.edu/?faculty=phong-bui |title=Art Writing |website=Artcriticism.sva.edu |date= |accessdate=2016-11-01}} Bui continued his postgraduate studies at the New York Studio School of Drawing, Painting, and Sculpture and studied independently with Nicolas Carone.

Bui is a multi-disciplinary artist whose work includes painting, sculpture, and site-specific installation. Since 2012 he has been working on his on-going social sculpture/environment, which attempts to realize "art as social activity" and to reinforce the notion that "the process of art making is the art." In 2006, Bui won the Award in Art from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, and the Eric Isenbeurger Annual Prize for Installation from the National Academy Museum. His work has been included in group exhibitions at Pierogi, the Brooklyn Museum of Art, and the North Dakota Museum of Art. Bui has lectured at Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture, Columbia University, Cooper Union, Bard College, and taught at Yale University, Rhode Island School of Design, University of Pennsylvania, and the School of Visual Arts where he is currently giving graduate seminars in MFA Writing and Criticism and MFA Photography, Video, and Related Media.{{cite web|url=http://www.sva.edu/faculty/phong-bui |title=School of Visual Arts | SVA | New York City > Our Faculty |accessdate=2015-03-15 |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20150325190053/http://www.sva.edu/faculty/phong-bui |archivedate=March 25, 2015 |df=mdy }}

Bui has won an Arcadia Traveling Fellowship, a Hohenberg Traveling Fellowship, and a Pollock-Krasner Foundation Fellowship, and in 2014 was the keynote speaker of The Scholastic Art and Writing Awards, and was the Visionary Honoree at Art in General's Annual Benefit.{{cite web|url=http://www.artingeneral.org/exhibitions/570 |title=Art in General |publisher=Art in General |date= |accessdate=2016-11-01}} In 2017, Bui was awarded the Dorothea and Leo Rabkin Foundation Prize in Fine Arts Journalism.{{Cite web|url=https://www.rabkinfoundation.org/grants/|title=GRANTS|website=THE DOROTHEA AND LEO RABKIN FOUNDATION|language=en-US|access-date=2018-04-19}} In 2019, the Lunder Institute named Bui a 2019 Lunder Institute Fellow.{{Cite web|url=https://www.colby.edu/lunderinstitute/2019/07/13/lunder-fellow-phong-bui/|title=Lunder Fellow: Phong Bui|last=skaplan|date=2019-07-13|website=Lunder Institute|language=en-US|access-date=2019-07-24}} In July 2019, Bui received the Jetté Award for Leadership in the Arts 2019 from Colby College as well as curating Occupy Colby: Artists Need to Create on the Same Scale That Society Has the Capacity to Destroy, Year 2 {{Cite web|url=https://www.colby.edu/museum/exhibition/occupy-colby-artists-need-to-create-on-the-same-scale-that-society-has-the-capacity-to-destroy-year-2/|title=Occupy Colby: Artists Need to Create on the Same Scale That Society Has the Capacity to Destroy, Year 2 {{!}} Colby College Museum of Art|website=Colby College|language=en-US|access-date=2019-07-24}} at Colby Museum of Art.

In 2017, Bui was a member of the jury that selected Reem Fadda for the Menil Collection's Walter Hopps Award for Curatorial Achievement.Alex Greenberger (23 May 2017), [https://www.artnews.com/art-news/news/menil-collections-walter-hopps-award-for-curatorial-achievement-goes-to-reem-fadda-8390/ Menil Collection’s Walter Hopps Award for Curatorial Achievement Goes to Reem Fadda] ARTnews.

{{Reflist|30em}}

• [http://www.phongbui.net Phong Bui's Official Website]
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20141108094419/http://www.sfaqonline.com/2014/09/in-conversation-phong-bui-with-constance-lewallen/ In Conversation: Phong Bui with Constance Lewallen SFAQ]
• [http://artpapers.org/feature_articles/feature4_2014_1112.html Phong Bui by Will Corwin]
• [http://issuu.com/umvajournal/docs/umva_journal_winter_2015 Phong Bui with Maury Colton UMVA]
• [http://www.sarahbowengallery.com/artwork_phong_bui.htm Bui exhibition at Sarah Bowen Gallery]
• [http://www.brooklynrail.org The Brooklyn Rail's Official Website]
• [http://miamirail.org/ The Miami Rail]
• [http://thirdrailquarterly.org/ The Third Rail]

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Category:1964 births

Category:Living people

Category:American publishers (people)

Category:American art curators

Category:People from Huế

Category:University of the Arts (Philadelphia) alumni

Category:American artists of Vietnamese descent

Category:American writers of Vietnamese descent

Category:Vietnamese emigrants to the United States