Current Exhibition

Textures of Remembrance: Vietnamese Artists and Writers Reflect on the Vietnamese Diaspora

June 17 - September 21, 2025 

The “Textures of Remembrance” exhibit explores a date that impacts many Vietnamese Americans: April 30, 1975, the end of the Vietnam War. Featuring works by 25 contemporary bVietnamese artists and writers, these narratives texturize the Vietnamese diasporic experience, in which refugees are not objects of rescue but instead subjects of artistic and political transformation. “Textures of Remembrance” will be on view through Sunday, September 21.

April 30 is a date often remembered poignantly, especially by those of South Vietnamese descent; as well, it is a date that denotes new beginnings. On this date in 1975, North Vietnamese forces captured Saigon, the capital of South Vietnam, marking the end of the Vietnam War. Reflecting on this day from past to present through written words, visual creations, and audiovisual components, this interdisciplinary exhibit reveals an intimate perspective of the diasporic experience that has been gathered, created, collected and re-collected, and imagined and re-imagined since 1975.

The creative pieces showcased – curated by the Diasporic Vietnamese Artists Network – reveal personal struggles and memories, demonstrating the continued effects of the Vietnam War on identity, sense of family and community, and representation. Importantly, this exhibition shares works made within and for the Vietnamese diasporic community to humanize the refugee experience from the inside-out. The project aims to present a humanities-driven exploration of the impact of the Vietnam War, collect and share stories in the diasporic Vietnamese community to foster healing and connection, build intergenerational and cross-cultural understanding, and counter stereotypes of and racism towards Vietnamese Americans and refugees.

Exhibition Support

Textures of Remembrance is a traveling exhibit created in partnership by the Diasporic Vietnamese Artists Network, Exhibit Envoy, and Oakland Asian Cultural Center. This project was made possible with support from California Humanities, a non-profit partner of the National Endowment for the Humanities, and California Arts Council, a state agency with a mission to strengthen arts, culture, and creative expression as the tools to cultivate a better California for all. Visit calhum.org and arts.ca.gov.

About Exhibit Envoy

Exhibit Envoy provides traveling exhibitions and professional services to museums throughout California. For more information, visit www.exhibitenvoy.org.

About the Diasporic Vietnamese Artists Network (DVAN)

The Diasporic Vietnamese Artists Network (DVAN) celebrates and fosters diasporic Vietnamese literary voices. DVAN promotes nonfiction, fiction, and poetry to empower Vietnamese artists in the diaspora to inspire understanding and dialogue within our community, and with others. Our complex and diverse stories must be championed and passed on to current and future generations. We are refugees, immigrants, survivors, and descendants, and our stories must be heard. For more information, visit www.dvan.org.

All exhibits and programs are free and open to the public.

Gallery Talk and Reception

Tuesday, September 16, 2025, 5:30pm

The Pauly Friedman Art Gallery invites the public to a gallery talk and reception to celebrate Constitution Day and Citizenship Day. With financial support from the Catherine and Dan Flood Endowed Fund for the Humanities, the Gallery and Misericordia University’s History and Political Science Departments will celebrate Constitution Day and Citizenship day on Tuesday, September 16 with a reception at 5:30pm at the Pauly Friedman Art Gallery. The reception will be followed by a gallery walkthrough and talk by Kim Nguyen Tran, Ph.D. Ethnomusicology Professor at Mount St. Mary’s University in Los Angeles and co-founder of the Missing Piece Project.