Artist Maily Nguyễn has already exhibited at Kaffeemitte - at that time she showed only paintings. Her talent and age brought a lot of good feedback and Maily Nguyễn was able to sell her paintings directly from Kaffeemitte to art lovers and collectors. When I saw her collages for the first time this spring, I wanted to know where the material she used to compose the collages came from. And what inspired her to create the new pieces. It was - matching the exhibition theme - parts of travel catalogues and wanderlust. The medium of printed travel catalogues alone is a nostalgic element, I can understand that it can help to engage with them against the feeling of lockdown…
Conversations like the one I had with Maily Nguyễn for the caption accompanying the collage are the reason why the hard work on this show was worth it. Maily Nguyễn's views and positions are, for me, a window into a different milieu and a different (generation of) artists. Her themes are engaging and thoughtfully argued. And her work ethic is also impressive. Punctual, reliable, productive, detail-loving - inferring from myself to others, I thought youth would still have only nonsense in their heads. Besides, this generation doesn't seem to like to talk on the phone but is very fast when texting:-)
Thank you Maily for your power, your trust and sense of humour!
Artist statement & A1 fine art print: www.we-do.de
MORE: www.instagram.com/mmmmaily/
