Anthony Le

Growing up among few who looked like me, I internalized the shame of feeling like an outsider, so my practice is an expression of self-acceptance and an act of resistance, acknowledging that these experiences of vulnerability were valid and are valuable. I take pleasure in subverting the model minority myth and the labels we place upon each other. I pull from my experiences of being a first-generation American to imagine what life could be if we all basked in self-acceptance and self-determination. Using images from memories, history, culture and my anxieties, I create scenes that are more daydream than reality. My work confronts the themes of toxic masculinity, femininity, injustice, body acceptance and hero worship. I reference people close to me, public figures, random internet images and my own self-image as prophetic avatars. I’m interested in representation that opens a dialogue about what the figures and I are questioning about the future, rather than a solely autobiographical storytelling. When the work conveys less about me and more about us, it reminds us that we have more in common than we may expect.

Anthony Le (b. 1985, Chattanooga, TN) is a Vietnamese American painter and printmaker. Influenced by his landscape architecture education, Le synthesizes narrative, history and cultural expectations to consider what the world could be. Le is a self-taught artist and creates with acrylic, pastel and ink. In 2021, Le presented a solo exhibition titled “My So-Called Asian Life,” at Tiny Art Gallery NYC. He has participated in exhibitions at Homme Gallery, Washington, DC (2021); Umbrella, Washington, DC (2021) and the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities (2021). He has received support from DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities’ Art Bank Collection, Mozaik Philanthropy and 51 for 51. Le lives in Washington, D.C. with his partner and fellow artist Ashley Jaye Williams. Le and Williams are also co-founders of The Model Mutiny clothing line, which feature linocut printed clothing.

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