By Kacey Chan
Every year, Axis Gallery holds its highly anticipated National Juried Exhibition – a competitive show where artists all over the country submit and showcase their best work. A different juror is chosen each year to evaluate submissions and select the best for display at the month-long exhibition. Previous jurors have come from institutions such as Sacramento State University, the Craft in America Center in Los Angeles, and the di Rosa Center for Contemporary Art in Napa. This year, the 20th National Juried Exhibition will be juried by Nancy Lim, the associate curator of Painting & Sculpture at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA).
In 2024, interdisciplinary, Vietnamese American artist Elaine T. Nguyen exhibited her captivating video piece, Jade: Protection and Permanence, at the Juried Show. Chosen out of hundreds of entries, Jade was selected as the Best in Show by then-juror Kelly Lindner and has since been exhibited at many locations throughout San Francisco.
As an artist, Nguyen is skilled in a wide variety of mediums, from painting and performance to video and sculpture. What is dominant throughout her work, however, is the exploration of themes such as identity, displacement, and the search for home.
“My work is rooted in a desire to reconnect with my Vietnamese heritage [through] reclaiming symbols, building community, and finding meaning through shared experiences,” writes Nguyen.
With her award-winning piece, Nguyen was searching for ways to connect with her culture, and Jade allowed her to accomplish exactly that. The project was borne out of the artist suffering from a dual hand injury, which prevented her from using her hands.
“Jade bracelets are a strong marker of identity that I shied away from as a child, and also carried a superstition of protecting its wearer from harm and bringing luck,” wrote Nguyen. “After the injuries, I decided I needed all the protection I could get and […] decided to make a small ritual of putting one on for the first time.”
Capturing an intimate look of a cultural tradition, the viewer watches like a fly on a wall as Nguyen is seen struggling to put on a jade bracelet by herself. Her mother’s hands appear and apply soap to the artist’s hands, allowing them to successfully squeeze through the bracelet. The video is meant to be humorous and lighthearted, letting the viewer in on the artist’s embrace of her cultural identity and feel the warmth which comes from home.
The exhibition of Jade at the Axis Gallery allowed the artist to personally connect with her audience and build community, encouraging others to reconnect with their cultural heritage just like Nguyen did.
“I was also pleasantly surprised to find that my video encouraged some Vietnamese viewers to finally get a bracelet of their own,” the artist wrote.
The Juried Show provided Nguyen with the opportunity to connect with other artists – both those in the local community and nationwide. In addition, Nguyen talked about how being in the Juried Show not only benefited her professionally, but also on a personal level.
“It was an incredible opportunity to have my work seen by Kelly Lindner, an incredible curator and very kind person,” Nguyen said. “I remember reading what she wrote about my work in the essay, Am I home? and tearing up. I felt so seen.”
In this way, the artist described how unique it felt to be a part of the Juried Show.
“She so accurately saw what I was hoping to say with my work and put it into words better than I ever could,” Nguyen wrote. “It was a special experience to have her select my work as one of the Best in the Show and to be able to share it with the greater Sacramento community.”
The artist is now finishing up her Blau-Gold Teaching Fellowship at Root Division in San Francisco and will soon move on to her full fellowship at the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art.
Axis 20th National Juried Exhibition Deadline Extended to May 18th
Axis Gallery’s annual Juried Show is now accepting submissions for 2025. Any artist residing in the U.S. is eligible to enter. Accepted artworks will be chosen by juror Nancy Lim and will be displayed at the gallery in downtown Sacramento from August 1st-August 31st, 2025.