Scroll is pleased to present A Summer’s Dream, a presentation of new works by Tony Huynh, and the artist’s first solo exhibition in New York.

Across thirteen new paintings, Huynh captures vignettes of familiarity, creating snapshots of boats passing by, flowers in bloom, moonlight reflected in the distance, horses grazing on hay. For Huynh, the emotional connection that he gets from the painting is the most important, and he achieves this by referencing his own memory, feeling, and imagination, rather than photographs, while working. When he starts a painting, Huynh looks to a memory or conversation and gets straight to painting, skipping preparatory sketches and moving straight to capturing the feeling of the image. 

Huynh’s influences span geographies and time periods: the form and color of American modernist Milton Avery, the intimacy and domesticity of French Nabis member Édouard Vuillard, the serene and scenic structure of Japanese woodblock prints, and the unwavering and innocent freedom of folk art. As an artist who does not rely on photographs to recreate precise and accurate detail, Huynh respects the Japanese philosophies that emphasize and value imperfections of the creative process and the freedom he gains by recognizing the beauty in mistakes.

At the California College of Fine Arts, Huynh studied illustration but made the decision to become a painter a few years ago. Huynh was drawn to representation, exploring a variety of creative careers before landing on painting – through this medium, Huynh felt a natural progression of exploring his creative freedom, with more room to experiment and evolve as an artist. Huynh feels that his work is everchanging, and he is always looking to define what painting means to him and giving him the liberty to explore the connection between himself and his work. In the beginning, Huynh was simply learning how to paint, and today, through his art, he reflects on what he wants to say and how to say it.

Born in San Francisco, Huynh currently lives and works in Sacramento. He received his BFA at the California College of the Arts (CCA), San Francisco. Huynh has recently exhibited with Bryant Street Gallery, Palo Alto; Vardan Gallery, Los Angeles; San Diego Museum of Arts; Crocker Art Museum, Sacramento; and Marin Museum of Contemporary Arts.