Tomas Vu-Daniel

Tomas Vu, aka. Tomas Vu-Daniel, (b. Saigon, Vietnam) received a BFA from the University of Texas, El Paso, and an MFA from Yale University. He has been a professor at Columbia University School of the Arts since 1996, when he helped found the LeRoy Neiman Center for Print Studies. In 2000, he was appointed the LeRoy Neiman Professor of Visual Arts. Since its inception, Vu has served as Director/Artistic Director of the LeRoy Neiman Center.

Vu's practice spans painting, printmaking, drawing, and large-scale installation, drawing on personal memory, historical trauma, and contemporary technological culture to construct immersive environments that blur the boundaries between object, image, human and machine. TRILOGY, a completed body of work, dealing with space/time, and consisting of three interconnected, David Bowie-inspired projects—69/19/45 Space Oddity, 76/22 The Man Who Fell to Earth, and 16/25/60 Blackstar—conceived across Berlin, New York, and Miami. Alongside TRILOGY, Vu has produced a wide range of independent works and series, including Opium Dreams (2003–2004), which explores hallucinatory vision through layered paint, silkscreen, drawing, and collage; Flatlands (2006–2012), a series of 103 unique prints marking each minute of the September 11, 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center; a body of hand-shaped paulownia wood surfboards laser-engraved with images and song lyrics; Dark Side of the Moon (2013–present), futuristic landscapes painted on mylar informed by post-industrial and technological transformation; and Green Go Home (2013–present), site-specific installations created in collaboration with Rirkrit Tiravanija that integrate printmaking, graffiti, and live drawing to investigate resistance, power, and public space.

Vu has received a Guggenheim Fellowship, a Joan Mitchell Foundation Fellowship Award, and a Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation Artist Award. His work has been exhibited internationally at major museums and institutions including MoMA PS1, the China Central Academy of Fine Arts Museum, the National Art Museum of China, the Vargas Museum, and CHAOS, Tokyo, and has been presented in solo and collaborative exhibitions throughout the United States, Europe, and Asia. He has participated in international biennials and residency programs, including the Biennial of Graphic Arts Ljubljana and the Arts/Industry Residency at the John Michael Kohler Arts Center. Vu lives and works in New York, NY.