“Inheritance”
Phuong Ngo
12 Apr → 7 June 2025
Gallery

Opening, 12 Apr, 6 – 8 am

Book Launch, 24 May, 4 – 6 am

Conversation, 7 June, 4 – 6 am

A space with a table of food, some furnitures, and portraits on the wall.
Phuong Ngo, family photograph, 1996, Vietnam, courtesy the artist.

West Space is proud to present the first major solo exhibition by Phuong Ngo.

Inheritance seeks to reframe the histories of colonialism, conflict and displacement through ancestral materials. In doing so, the project aims to transform suffering and how we relate to it — to re-image what was lost and to gift it to future generations.

This significant project unfolds across three phases connecting South Vietnam, Tarntanya/Adelaide, Naarm/Melbourne and Kamberri/Canberra through post-colonial and familial relationships.

The first iteration, taking place at West Space, centres on the artist's family dining table, a place of gathering and punishment, and the deconstructed re-imaginings of familial and ancestral objects.

Inheritance is realised across material remains of the artist’s ancestral home in Vietnam, archival materials, video, and performance. Inheritance deconstructs and reconfigures personal and geographical relationships to deepen connections with the past, present and future.

Curated by Amelia Winata.

Supported by Creative Australia as part of their VACS Major Commissions program, Inheritance premieres at West Space and tours to Canberra Contemporary in October 2025.

Programs

Opening, Sat 12 April, 4 → 6pm

With a performance by Phuong Ngo.

Book Launch, Sat 24 March, 2 → 4pm

Celebrate the Inheritance publication with a conversation between Phuong Ngo and Nikki Lam, artist and co-editor, Slow Burn Books. Register

Conversation, Sat 7 June, 2 → 4pm

A conversation between Phuong Ngo and exhibition curator Amelia Winata will take place on the final day of the exhibition.

A living room with pictures on the walls, two wooden cabinets, a glass table and antique decor.
A gated facade of an old house with trees out the front.
An old home with some palm trees out the front and with a cloudy background.

Phuong Ngo is an artist and curator living and working in Naarm/Melbourne. His practice is concerned with the interpretation of history, memory, and place as a form of comprehension for the present. Through an archival process rooted in a conceptual practice, he seeks to find linkages between culture, politics, public and private histories.

Amelia Winata is an independent writer and curator in Naarm/Melbourne. She holds a PhD in Art History from the University of Melbourne, is a founding editor of Memo Review, and previously, was Curator at Gertrude Contemporary.