studio program_Elise Nguyễn Quốc
April-June, 2025
Introducing Elise Nguyen Quoc (@elise.nguyenquoc), who will be working in 99 Canal’s STUDIO 1 to prepare a new body of work to be presented in an upcoming solo show at Gratin Gallery, New York City, in September.
Using several techniques such as ballpoint pen, ballpoint pen with acrylic, and dry pigment, her iconography is based on a corpus of images she photographs herself. What she captures and suspends are infra-lives, those elements that exist on the periphery of major subjects—tiny fragments caught in time that elude natural optics. From these images, rendered inert, she restores their materiality through a long process of manual reproduction.
Unable to assign words that would provide a credible meaning to what is being seen, Elise embraces the challenge of a transmission that lies beyond structured and ordered language.
“For Elise Nguyen Quoc, the Pen Is Mightier Than the Paintbrush,” Office, 2024
Elise Nguyen Quoc, Gratin Gallery.
Studio Program | 99 Canal
The Studio Program is a one to three-month opportunity for emerging and mid-career artists based both within and outside New York City.
Collaborating with artists, galleries, and institutions, our selection process draws on the insights of the local creative community to ensure a continuously diverse and vibrant studio cohort.
The program initially launched in 2022 as a response to the lack of affordable spaces in Manhattan and provides access to an intimate and context-specific environment to work in.