Julien Nguyen, Gabriel (Study for an Annunciation) | 38 St Marks Editions Portfolio

Julien Nguyen’s Gabriel (Study for an Annunciation) exemplifies the artist’s examination of how identities and narratives are cultivated in relation to the canon. Mining imagery from Renaissance painting, manga, science fiction and antiquity, the figures that populate Nguyen’s nuanced works oscillate between the familiar and the alien. Here, Nguyen depicts one of the most represented biblical scenes, the Archangel Gabriel performing the annunciation of the Virgin, modeling the figure after Leonardo’s early interpretation. Nguyen renders the angel in a Japanese schoolboy’s uniform rather than traditional robes, fashioning a new, chimerical messenger.

Julien Nguyen (b. 1990 in Fairfax, Virginia) lives and works in Los Angeles. He studied at the Rhode Island School of Design in Providence and the Städelschule in Frankfurt am Main, and recently participated in the 2017 Whitney Biennial. In 2018, Nguyen will have his first institutional solo show at Swiss Institute.