BIO

Thu-Nhi Nguyen-Petit is a French-born Vietnamese artist and non-profit leader based in New York. Her arts practice is shaped by questions of identity, migration, and the search for belonging.

Working in mixed media, Thu-Nhi creates richly textured works that explore the idea of Home as both a physical and emotional space. Her paintings evoke sanctuary: lush, complex, and quietly resilient.

Primarily self-taught in visual arts, Thu-Nhi has devoted her professional career to furthering the mission of non-profits in the arts & culture, education and health sectors. She holds a Master in Public Administration from Columbia University.

STATEMENT

Home is not a fixed address. My work explores what it means to belong.

Rooted in a family journey spanning three continents, I have spent my life navigating the in-between - the spaces where identities overlap, where the familiar and the foreign meet, and where meaning is internally reconstructed.

I work in mixed media, building surfaces with paint and materials. The act of layering is itself the language - each piece accumulates history, texture, and intention. I am drawn to organic forms and the tension between wilderness and shelter. My paintings ask: where do we feel safe? What does refuge actually look like?

The answer is somewhere between safety and resilience. I want my work to hold that space - to be a sanctuary for the viewer, as much as the making of it is a sanctuary for me.