Bio

Jade Nguyễn is a photographer, artist, and educator from Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. She is currently based in central Illinois, working as an Instructional Assistant Professor in photography and video art. She received her MFA in Photography from Illinois State University and her BFA in Photography and Graphic Design from the State University of New York at Plattsburgh.

Nguyễn’s work is informed by the appreciation for life, transformation, traditions, and interpersonal relationships present during her upbringing in Vietnam. Her documentation of Vietnamese culture highlights its vibrancy and contemporary issues while her work in alternative processes utilize image-making as a form of memory-mapping. From digital photography to alternative printing, the variety of photographic mediums, techniques, and subject matter found in her work reflects the extensive, ever-changing, and multifaceted Vietnamese culture that exists at the intersection, a culture that resists limitation, control, and stagnancy.

Education

MFA in Photography, Illinois State University, 2021-2024.

BFA in Photography and Graphic Design, SUNY Plattsburgh, 2017-2021

Selected Exhibition

Visual Narratives: PCNW’s 27th Juried Exhibition, Photographic Center Northwest, Seattle, WA, 2025.

Things We Carry: an Asian Experience, Studio Montclair, Montclair, NJ, 2025.

A Conversation Between, University Galleries, Illinois State University, Normal, IL, 2025.

Agora, solo exhibition, St. Louis Artists Guild, St. Louis, MO, 2025. →

Photo Triennial: The Photograph as an Art Object, Galesburg Community Arts Center, IL, 2025.

Photography Now, Woman Made Gallery, Chicago, IL, 2025.  →

This House is Not For Sale, solo exhibition, McLean County Art Center, Bloomington, IL, 2025.

Student Annual, University Galleries, Illinois State University, Normal, IL, 2024.

polyphony, MFA Thesis Exhibition, University Galleries, Illinois State University, Normal, IL, 2024.  →

McLean County Art Exhibition, McLean County Art Center, Bloomington, IL, 2024.

mutualism, two-person exhibition, Julian Gallery, Illinois State University, Normal, IL, 2023

in our place, Midwest Nice Art, Aberdeen, SD, 2023.  →

returning to/trở về, two-person exhibition, Central Illinois Regional Airport, Bloomington, IL, 2023.  →

14,000km, solo exhibition, Rachel Cooper Gallery, Illinois State University, Normal, IL, 2022.  →

McLean County Art Exhibition, McLean County Art Center, Bloomington, IL, 2021.

Awards

Things We Carry: an Asian Experience, Best in Show, Studio Montclair, NJ, 2025.

Photo Triennial: The Photograph as an Art Object, Runner-Up, Galesburg Community Arts Center, 2025.

McLean County Art Exhibition, 1st-place, McLean County Art Center, 2024.

Lenscratch Student Prize, Top 26, 2023.

Robert Small Award for Writing, Illinois State University, 2023.

Karen Deske Scholarship, Illinois State University, 2023.

Karolee Johnson Memorial Award, Illinois State University, 2023.

Image of Research, 2nd-place, Illinois State University, 2022.

Graduate Student Merit Fellowship, Illinois State University, 2022.

Barbara J. Parnass Scholarship in Photography, SUNY Plattsburgh, 2021.