By Sunny Walia

Nhat Nguyen sitting beside the sketch of his painting “Underneath”

(Photo Credits: Nhat Nguyen)

SAN JOSE, CALIF – Nhat Nguyen is a senior at Silver Creek High School and has aspirations of taking his skills in art and architecture to the next level. Nguyen moved to San Jose, Calif. from Da Lat, Vietnam when he was in seventh grade. When he looks back at it, “I’m glad I came to America. I have more time and opportunity to work on my passion.”

Nguyen’s fascination with textures and mechanics of pieces came from a liking of Legos growing up.  When he moved to the United States, Nguyen only had a basic understanding of English and mostly kept to himself. In eighth grade, he began to take his passion for art and architecture seriously.

His art is influenced by Buddhist and Japanese artworks. He believes these cultural styles possess peaceful qualities. He produces paintings with repeating spirals and patterns. During his creative process, he records his work in the pursuit of making viewers feel comforted, relaxed and meditated. Each art piece takes him three to six months of work and he does multiple pieces within a cycle. Right now, he’s working on three pieces.

The piece he is most proud of is his “Amitabha Triad.” This piece was commissioned by a TikTok creator. It’s a series of three paintings depicting Kannon Bodhisattva, Amida Buddha, and Seishi Bodhisattva. He doesn’t plan on stopping. He wants to create even more abstract artwork. Nguyen doesn’t believe in limits or being confined to a style.

Nguyen’s series of three paintings in his triptych, “Amitabha Triad”

(Photo Credit: Nhat Nguyen) 

Nguyen isn’t just satisfied with creating physical pieces because he wants to take his art to the next level by putting his work on the metaverse. The metaverse is a virtual art space, and he plans on minting his work on the crypto blockchain. Incorporating NFTs to go along with a personal physical piece is a vision he holds. He believes that the metaverse is a part of the future. With the royalties received from the volume being traded, he wants to create generational wealth for those that come after him.

While this started as a hobby for Nguyen, he’s planning on attending a college for architecture after high school. He applied to Yale, UCLA and other universities in order to pursue a degree in architecture and design.

When Nguyen isn’t painting and creating models, he enjoys looking at crypto, editing videos, watching other artists and watching movies. He also sells brushes from a handmade wholesale company and is planning on releasing these brushes Jan. 18, on nattosolutions.com. 

You can find Nguyen’s art and sculptures on his social media, @nhat_nguyenstudio on Instagram and TikTok.