Antonius-Tin T. Bui (they/them) was born in Bronx, NY in 1992. They identify as queer, gender-nonbinary, Vietnamese-American artist, whose parents Paul and Van Bui, two Vietnamese refugees have made huge sacrifices to provide a future for their four kids and extended family. Antonius moved to Houston before pursuing a BFA at the Maryland Institute College of Art (MIC/A). Since graduating in 2016, Antonius has received fellowships from the Vermont Studio Center, Kala Art Institute, Tulsa Artists Fellowship, Halcyon Arts Lab, Houston Center for Contemporary Craft, Washington Project for the Arts, and Yaddo. These opportunities have greatly expanded Antonius' practice beyond just hand-cut paper techniques. They are currently interested in complicating Vietnamese history and queerness through performance, textiles, and photography. Antonius has exhibited at various institutional, private, public, and underground venues, including the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, Corcoran Gallery of Art, Hillyer Art Space, Lawndale Art Center, Living Arts, 108 Contemporary, Artscape, the Philbrook Museum, Experimental Action 2019, and the Museum of Human Achievement. Most recently, Antonius exhibited two series of their works "ReModel Minority," and "End Your Silence (Self Immolation)" which is a series of Zippo lighters with engraved texts, in HAAA's inaugural exhibition, "Faces in the Pandemic" that is on view in Fondren Library, Aug - Nov 2020. In this interview, Antonius speaks of their childhood, their parents' stories and family history, their upbringing, experiences in school, and a heartfelt story about their come-out experience with their parents. They also spoke of their artistic practices and their passion and vision for art, and an optimistic future they look forward to.
View interview transcript PDF — Full interview materials on Rice Digital Scholarship