I was born and grew up in Boorloo (Perth, Western Australia). My parents are refugees from Vietnam, fleeing their country in the 1970s. My mum’s family found a new life in Maastricht, the Netherlands whilst my dad’s family found a home in Perth, Australia. I spent a lot of time between the two countries growing up, visiting my opa and oma in Tilburg almost every December holiday season. In the middle of 2018, it felt like the right time to make a move overseas; my partner and I spent almost two years doing residency programs and projects in Amsterdam, Lapua (Finland), Watou (Belgium), Los Angeles, Santa Fe, Jiali (Taiwan), and then finally putting our roots down here in Amsterdam (our favourite city!)

Pansy is located in the formerly design and concept store dewerkwinkel + meer which used to be run by graphic designer Lian. I met her in the spring of 2019 after returning from a fourth-month residency in Finland. I was looking for a gallery/retail space to share my work, and completely fell in love with the space. It’s one of those ‘right-time, right-place’ stories as Lian was saying goodbye to her shop. After a quite few months of planning, I was able to sign the lease and got the keys in March 2020.

In the midst of the pandemic I felt a big urge ​(and need) to grow into a bigger space that would offer a dedicated place for workshops, hosting bigger events for exhibitions, and more STORAGE. I looked around for areas with more foot-traffic in other neighbourhoods, but decided to stay in Czaar Peterstraat. I set up a meeting with our ​(very grumpy) makelaar, made a Big Girl Boss presentation, and signed the lease for an 80 square metre spot, which is our current home. With the help of my sweety friends, we spent two months fitting in new lighting, painting walls, building custom tables and furniture, and in March 2022 we re-opened our bigger brighter sunnier spot!

Pansy is a type of garden flower! I wrote a little bit more about my feelings about pansies here.

I love beautiful colour combinations (especially including pink), stationery, design, and art supply shops, well-designed spaces, patches of weeds and wildflowers, travelling to new cities, flea markets, food markets, outdoor markets, supermarkets, music videos, flower shops, talking through projects with my partner Bobo, growing plants, meeting other artists doing exciting things, art books, having deep, insightful, and great conversations, love stories, seeing my friends pursue and fulfil their dreams, and so much more!

I love listening to podcasts and finding out about new ones! Let me know if you have some good recommendations :) Currently on high rotation:

The Savage Lovecast, My Daily Business Coach, Freakanomics Radio, The Daily, 99% Invisible, Planet Money, Creative Pep Talk, Hidden Brain, Office Ladies, The Office Deep Dive, Ologies, NPR’s Life Kit series, Unlocking Us (and anything Brene Brown), Lingthusiasm, Slate’s Working series, Truth Be Told, Modern Love, Good Ancestor, Goal Digger, Today Explained, No Stupid Questions, Call Your Girlfriend, People I Mostly Admire, Consider This, Death Sex & Money, About Race, Bill Gates & Rashida Jones ask Big Questions, Ten Percent Happier, Yo, Is this Racist?, It’s Been a Minute, Unexplainable, Financial Feminist, The Experiment, Your Undivided Attention, Code Switch, On Being, Retail for the Rest of Us :)

I studied Fine Art & Design, my background is in printmaking & illustration and for 7 years in Australia I ran a cute shop/studio/workshop space (very much the roots of where pansy grows) with a team of kickass creative and funny women called Beau Est Mien. I also worked as an artist doing various projects, exhibitions, collaborations and events, you can find out more about my previous work here!