Although deeply interested in drawing and portraiture from a young age, coming from a modest background, the responsibilities of daily life briefly led Hom Nguyen away from the art world. Originally working as a shoe salesman, it was in 2009, the year that his mother’s passing, that Hom Nguyen decided to venture out on his own and began working on shoe patinas.

After some challenging beginnings, he developed a technique of his own and further honed his skills during a few months in Tokyo, Japan, learning from master tattoo artists in the Shibuya district. Upon returning to France, his work on patinas, colors, and materials quickly gained recognition. Some even considered his creations as true “footwear artworks.”

Numerous collaborations gradually led him into the world of design and, most importantly, art, such as his partnership with designer Ora-Ito in 2011. This year marked a turning point for the artist as he established a large studio in Bagnolet, next to Paris, allowing him to create very large portraits on canvas.

Since then, Hom Nguyen has devoted himself entirely to drawing and painting, and his works are increasingly exhibited around the world.

Lacking formal academic training, Hom Nguyen rejects all conformity. The self-taught painter emphasizes that he does not paint to please. His work on the series of sketched masks, particularly focused on the gaze of Asian children without mouths, is the result of a mental projection. Created without any prior models, Hom Nguyen relies solely on his memory and the emotion of the moment to draw the face of the child he once was: a child born to an immigrant mother who was part of the “boat people.”

His works bridge the gap between figurative and abstract art, aiming to question the boundaries between the sensory and the intellectual, emotion and inquiry. Indeed, behind the profusion of lines and the liveliness of execution, faces are represented in a way that highlights the lightness of the strokes and the depth of the image through automatic writing.

The series “Sans Repères” and “Le Cri Intérieur” (Inner Cry) continue to pay tribute to the artist’s mother and the history of immigration. Each one leads the audience to experience the distress and nightmares lived by these children and illustrates the interpretation of our subconscious dreams: in one, the desire to establish a first human connection necessarily goes through a gaze; in the other, screaming for help does not necessarily find an echo. No sound emerges; only the inner cry remains.

During a conference dedicated to Hom Nguyen held at the University of Paris-Sorbonne on December 12, 2017, Céline Berchiche, a Ph.D. graduate in art history from the University of Paris-Sorbonne IV, coined the term “Figuration Lyrique” (Lyrical Figuration) for the first time to characterize the emergence of a new contemporary art movement. Serving as a counterpart to Georges Mathieu’s “Abstraction Lyrique,” this new movement oscillates between abstraction and figuration, notably due to one of its technical characteristics: the sketching, a liberated, dynamic gesture without contour lines.

At the 2016 edition of the contemporary art fair “Art Paris Art Fair” at the Grand Palais in Paris, President François Hollande of the French Republic visited to commend the work of the artist Hom Nguyen. On June 15, 2016, Hom Nguyen presented his “Sans Repères” series for the first time at the Palais de Tokyo.

In 2019, in collaboration with the Musée de la Monnaie de Paris and Vogue Magazine, he created an iconic portrait of Michelle Obama. The success of the auction of this artwork by Christie’s raised funds to support programs promoting gender equality and women’s empowerment led by UN Women.

During the same year, he paid a heartfelt tribute to Edith Piaf by creating a monumental portrait displayed at the entrance of the Meyneil wing of Tenon Hospital. A giant permanent artwork also covers the exterior wall of the institution where Edith Piaf was born in 1915.

The artist also contributed to the commemoration of the 250th anniversary of the birth of Napoleon Bonaparte by creating a contemporary portrait of the emperor for the MUDACC – Musée des Arts de la Citadelle de Calvi.