For Immediate Release
September 23, 2025
On Refuge: 50 Years of Recomposition
October 4 – October 25, 2025
Opening Reception: Saturday, October 4, 6–10 PM, https://bit.ly/OpeningNightReceptionOnRefuge
Orange County Center for Contemporary Art (OCCCA)
117 N Sycamore St, Santa Ana, CA 92701
Gallery Hours: Thursday–Sunday, 12–5 PM
Santa Ana, CA — The Vietnamese American Arts & Letters Association (VAALA) proudly presents On Refuge: 50 Years of Recomposition through its Gallery Beyond Walls initiative, commemorating the 50th anniversary of the Vietnamese American community. On view from October 4 to October 25, 2025 at the Orange County Center for Contemporary Art, the exhibition brings together 13 multi-generational Vietnamese artists whose works explore the evolving landscape of Vietnamese identity in America.
Featuring artists Angela Anh Nguyen, An Hà, Anh Dao Ha, Anh Nguyen, Ann Lê, Đan Lynh Phạm, Dinh Q. Lê, Felisa Nguyễn, Hùng Lê, Huyen Tran, Phung Huynh, Tuan Andrew Nguyen, and Vivian Tran, On Refuge reflects on the past five decades while envisioning the future. Through painting, photography, textiles, media, and mixed media installations, the exhibition engages with “how the Vietnamese American community is carried, embodied, and continued”.
Curator Audrey Bui describes the exhibition’s thematic focus: “Recomposition, a strong theme in the shown works, manifests in different homages to family, community, physical cities, photographs, textiles, media, and lasting, but also, changing legacies. There is an intentional blurring and distortion of familial structures, traditions, and cultural objects that both manipulate and investigate memory in a way that prompts generative conversations on language and inheritance.”
On Refuge: 50 Years of Recomposition invites viewers to engage with works that hold legacy and resistance hand in hand, provoking the honoring and reworking of collective memory while reflecting on how the Vietnamese American story is carried forward through continuity and change.
About the Vietnamese American Arts & Letters Association: VAALA was founded in 1991 by a group of Vietnamese American journalists, artists, and friends to fill a void in the community and provide a space for newly resettled immigrant artists to express themselves. VAALA’s mission is to connect and enrich communities through Vietnamese art and culture. Historically run entirely by volunteers, VAALA is a community-based non-profit organization. Over the years, VAALA has collaborated with diverse community partners to organize numerous cultural and artistic events. VAALA’s four core programs include the annual Viet Film Fest and Viet Book Fest, the Gallery Beyond Walls program featuring art exhibitions, and free art and film workshops for youth, such as Youth in Motion: A Filmmaking Workshop for Emerging Filmmakers.
On Refuge: 50 Years of Recomposition Contact
Corey Linh
Communication Specialist
coreylinh@vaala.org
Audrey Bùi
Curator
audreybui@vaala.org
An Hà
Untitled, 2024
Household dust, found drawer
17 x 20.5 in
Đinh Q. Le
Damaged Gene, 1998
Knitted Sweater
Installation dimensions variable