About Maria Nguyen Art
Maria Hoa Nguyen is a visual artist living and working in Santa Barbara, California. Born and raised in Vietnam, she came to the United States as a refugee—an experience that deeply shapes her artistic voice and sensibility. Her work explores a range of mediums, with a primary focus on oil painting, complemented by mixed media and ink. She also works with ceramic to create unique gifts for friends and associates.
From an early age, Maria was drawn to arts and crafts and received both formal and informal training in traditional fine arts in Vietnam and later in the United States. Her artistic journey bridges cultures and geographies, blending Eastern sensitivity with Western contemporary approaches. She recently completed the Mastery Program at the Milan Art Institute, where she refined her technical skills and deepened her personal visual language.
Maria’s work explores themes of landscape, abstraction, minimalism, and still life. Rather than depicting specific places or objects, her paintings often evoke emotional and spiritual spaces—inviting viewers into moments of stillness, reflection, and quiet presence. Through layered surfaces, restrained palettes, and subtle movement, her work reflects an ongoing search for belonging, memory, and inner peace.
Artist Statement
My work is an exploration of quiet presence—spaces where memory, emotion, and stillness meet. Rooted in my lived experience between Vietnam and the United States, my paintings reflect an ongoing dialogue between place and belonging, silence and voice. Rather than aiming for literal representation, I seek to create visual environments that feel contemplative and open, allowing viewers to pause and breathe.
I work primarily with oil paint, drawn to its capacity for layering, subtle transitions, and depth. Through restrained color palettes, softened edges, and intentional brushwork, I allow forms to emerge gradually, often dissolving into one another. This process mirrors my internal rhythm—slow, reflective, and attentive to what reveals itself over time.
Themes of landscape, abstraction, seasons, minimalism, scared icons and still life recur throughout my practice, not as fixed categories but as fluid expressions of inner states. My paintings are shaped by migration, memory, spiritual, and faith, yet they remain intentionally open-ended. I hope each work becomes a space of encounter—where viewers may find resonance, stillness, or a quiet sense of home.
