Khánh H. Lê
Fillmore School Studio Prize Winner
Khánh H. Lê (b. 1981, Long Dinh, Vietnam; lives and works in Washington, D.C.) creates mixed-media collages based on deteriorating photographs and collective memories of his personal and familial history as refugees living in Vietnamese internment camps. Lê merges narratives—horrific realities and idyllic fantasies—filled with tension as he explores notions of home, country, and safety. Lê graduated with an MFA from Syracuse University in 2008. After graduate school, he moved to Washington and made the District his new studio base. His work has been exhibited at the Hunterdon Art Museum, Clinton, New Jersey, and locally at the Smithsonian’s Portrait Gallery of Art, Corcoran Gallery of Art, Vox Populi, Honfleur Gallery, DC Arts Center, Hillyer Art Space, Transformer, CulturalDC, Pyramid Atlantic, VisArt Gallery, Glen Echo Park Gallery, and Arlington Arts Center. The DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities awarded Lê an Artist Fellowship for the Visual Arts in 2011 and from 2015 through 2022. Lê received 2nd place as a finalist in the Bethesda Painting Awards 2018. In 2019 Lê was a semifinalist for the Sondheim Artscape Prize in Baltimore and a semifinalist for the Bethesda Trawick Prize in 2020. A finalist once again in the Bethesda Painting Prize 2020. Lê was selected as a finalist for the Smithsonian’s Outwin Boochever Portrait Competition 2022 at the National Portrait Gallery. In addition to art prizes, Lê has been commissioned by Arlington Public Art, Arlington Transit: Art, Smithsonian Freer Gallery, Meta Art (formerly Facebook), Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery, and Frederick Arts Council.
