Tony Huynh Heaven or Las Vegas 06.11.2026 - 18.12.2026
Portfolio
American painter Tony Huynh presents Heaven or Las Vegas, his first solo exhibition at Galerie Christian Lethert, which also marks his first solo presentation in Europe. His small-format paintings are self-contained worlds with a strong narrative quality.
With the title Heaven or Las Vegas, Tony Huynh alludes to the tension between two worlds and a feeling of melancholy. These extremes are invoked to express all that lies between them, the many facets that make up the complexity of human reality—whether as a citizen of society, a member of a community, or a painter alone in the studio.
Painted in oils on wood using a deliberately restrained color palette, the works reflect a knowledge of centuries of art history—both classical and outsider art—and their techniques, including those of Japanese printmaking.
The works, depicting a woman in a blue dress reading, a moving train, a black sheep with purple wool, or a river landscape, can be described neither as purely naïve nor as quirky or surrealist. Rather, symbols are employed playfully, and childlike, seemingly flawed or primitive conceptions are explored, their imperfections always imbued with a certain dark ambiguity.
An exhibition catalog will be published: Heaven or Las Vegas, 2026, 60 pages, English/German, softcover.
