Benjamin Huynh (1996 – FR/BE) (He:She:They) is a multidisciplinary visual artist. Their artistic journey began in 2015 when they left their native Côte d’Azur to complete their artistic training in Toulouse and later at École de recherche graphique (ERG) in Brussels. Initially drawn to performing arts, Benjamin’s artistic exploration turned towards painting, installation and textile work. Their work serves as a platform for investigation and experimentation, exploring themes such as queer identities, selfie culture and space positivity.

EXHIBITIONS : 


Collectives :


Homografia Festival (2024)

– Beursschouwburg, Brussels (Be) (28th June to 3rd July 2024)


Biennale de l’image possibles (BIP 2024) : MUTANTX

– Ancienne bibliothèque des Chiroux, Liège (Be) (16th March to 1rst June 2024)


Les Bacchanales du comité informel

– Brasserie Illegaal, Brussels (Be) (17th June 2023)


Hembodied 

– High on Feels Fields, Brussels (Be) (09-10th June 2023)


Jean & Irène Ransy Prize

– Maison Losseau – Mons (Be) (from 24th of March to 23rd of April 2023)


Living contents #2

– Rile* – Brussels (Be) (29th of June 2022)


Yes Future 

– Erg, Brussels (Be) (23th May 2022)


The Perception of the infinite bodies 

– Mains d’Oeuvres – Paris (Fr) (From 17th to 26th of March 2022)


Poèmes – Structure – Peintures 

– See U – Brussels (Be) (From 20th to 27th of November 2021)


LABO DEMO FERMÉ 24/24 7/7 

– Centre Wallonie Bruxelles – Paris (Fr)

(From 26th of March to 27th of April 2021)


5n41l_p4r7y 

– Online event (13th of May 2020)

https://snailparty.hotglue.me/

Solo :

 

Côté cour ou Côté jardin : corps transitifs

– That’s what X Said, Brussels (Be) (24th May to 4th August 2024)

 

B.R.A.V.E presents Benjamin Huynh

-B.R.A.V.E asbl – Brussels (Be) 

(From 6th of october to 3rd of november 2022)

 

Benjamin Huynh

– Hôtel Sennecé – Mâcon (Fr)

Invited by Minuit Deux, in a partnership with Ursulines’s Museum of Mâcon 

(From 17th of June to 24th of October 2021)

 

Publications / Press: 

 

2023 : «Biennale de l’Image Possible, MUTANTX, Les Chiroux à Liège» – Chroniques de la matinale / RTBF (L’image possible peinte)
2023 : Benjamin Huynh @ Queef : https://www.queef.be/huynh
2022 : REFLECTION MAGAZINE – Exhibition catalogue
(The Perception of the infinite bodies) by Victoria Gour
2021 :LABO DÉMO 3 FERMÉ 24/24 7/7 – Exhibition catalogue by the residents of CWB. 

In the complexity of the contemporary painting landscape, traditional boundaries are being questioned by concepts such as network painting and transitive painting, which encourage a re-evaluation of the historical hierarchical structure of the medium. Benjamin Huynh’s work is part of this transformation, seeking to explore the potential of figurative painting in a horizontal and interconnected paradigm. Horizontality becomes a central node through which their work examines concepts of care, inclusion and soft activism intertwined with contemporary queer political issues. These notions function as essential survival strategies in late capitalism. 

Their work involves collaborating with friends to generate source materials, in particular selfies, an approach that aims to be positive and to question the representation of (transitive) bodies. In this way, painting is used as a tool to traverse the worlds of images, oscillating here between the history of Western figurative painting and 21st-century self-representation through photography. Re-examining traditional aesthetics and gender assignments, Benjamin Huynh’s work actively involves the painted persons in a horizontal relationship with the artist. 

These proposals relate painting to the question of display, with the works resisting their conventional sanctification through a positive approach to space. Textile work and installation become tools for freeing ourselves from the canvas, while redefining museography and the exhibition as a place of passage. Figurative painting disrupts the interaction between distance and object, culminating in installations where the work and the viewers converge. 

At the heart of this exploration is a tentacular approach, weaving together contemporary themes of interconnection, privacy and self-representation. Reference images derived from selfies are used as a channel to explore identity, the embodiment of bodies and the impact of the digital age on self-expression. 

Benjamin Huynh’s practice is not conceived as a series, but rather as a collection of interconnected objects, each engaging in a dialogue with the others. These are pieces that interact and, like a rhizome, proliferate.

 

 

 

 

Benjamin Huynh’s work finds itself woven from networks. Just as we exist through relationships – whether virtual or physical – through the grace of others, so too do they paintings, as they are the traces of moments shared by the artist and the people around them. Based on photographs of friends playing with costumes and poses, the works reveal a radical care for and by the other, who is not obliged to remain painfully still for hours. They operate in the tension between the lightness of freedom and the heaviness of responsibility, the tension of the act of painting itself, at the same time spontaneous and burdened by the medium and its history. Here is a painter who is not romantically confined to solitude, but joyfully rooted in relationships. It is precisely this quality of openness that is reflected in the installations of the work. The works are placed in a space and retain a certain flexibility, as if they were a carefully prepared improvisation, presenting themselves to an audience without imposing themselves on it. Very personal, this work (re)presents its queerness without reducing or flattening it, but rather by engaging with all its beautiful complexities.

 

 

Elias D’hollander (2022)