Sung Tieu
Photo: Vitali Gelwich
In this podcast, based on The Art Newspaper's regular interview series, our host Ben Luke talks to artists in-depth. He asks the questions you've always wanted to: who are the artists, historical and contemporary, they most admire? Which are the museums they return to? What are the books, music and other media that most inspire them? And what is art for, anyway?
Sung Tieu’s work uses her own personal history to explore various conditions in contemporary society. Born in Hai Duong, Vietnam, in 1987, she now lives in Berlin.
Sung Tieu's How is your day? (2026)
Courtesy the artist and Emalin, London
This interface between her Vietnamese background and her present environment—in the broadest sense of the term—forms the structure for a wideranging, materially rich investigation of migration, labour and capitalism, Cold War and post-Cold War European society and culture, and post-colonial life more widely.
Detail from Sung Tieu's Untitled (Shower Room / Door) (2026)
Courtesy of the artist and Emalin, London.
She explores these complex subjects with a language that acknowledges yet offers a critique of recent traditions in Western art, including Conceptual Art, Minimalism and Post-Minimalism.
Detail from Sung Tieu's Untitled (Shower Room / Left) (2026)
Courtesy of the artist and Emalin, London.
This distinctive approach, allied to her ability to operate across diverse disciplines, forms and scales and her sensitivity to space and site, led to her being commissioned to respond to the German Pavilion in the 61st Venice Biennale.
Sung Tieu's Human Dignity Shall Be Inviolable (2026) on view in Ruin, German Pavilion, 61st International Art Exhibition, La Biennale di Venezia, Venice, 2026.
Image © Sung Tieu, 2026. Courtesy the artist; Emalin, London; Galerie Sfeir Semler Hamburg/Beirut; Trautwein Herleth, Berlin; and ifa – Institut für Auslandsbeziehungen. Photo: Andrea Rossetti
She reflects at length on her work in Venice, discusses the balance of intimacy and investigative rigour in her work, and how she can be playful even when addressing deadly serious subject matter.
Sung Tieu's Human Dignity Shall Be Inviolable (2026) on view in Ruin, German Pavilion, 61st International Art Exhibition, La Biennale di Venezia, Venice, 2026.
Image © Sung Tieu, 2026. Courtesy the artist; Emalin, London; Galerie Sfeir Semler Hamburg/Beirut; Trautwein Herleth, Berlin; and ifa – Institut für Auslandsbeziehungen. Photo: Andrea Rossetti
She discusses her early interest in Francisco de Goya’s Black Paintings, the enduring influence of Hanne Darboven, her response to Albrecht Dürer in her Venice exhibition, her close reading of Ocean Vong and Walter Benjamin, and the impact of the films of Ken Loach.
Sung Tieu's Human Dignity Shall Be Inviolable (2026) on view in Ruin, German Pavilion, 61st International Art Exhibition, La Biennale di Venezia, Venice, 2026.
Image © Sung Tieu, 2026. Courtesy the artist; Emalin, London; Galerie Sfeir Semler Hamburg/Beirut; Trautwein Herleth, Berlin; and ifa – Institut für Auslandsbeziehungen. Photo: Andrea Rossetti
Plus, she gives insight into life in the studio and answers our usual questions, including the ultimate: what is art for?
This podcast is sponsored by Bloomberg Connects, the arts and culture platform. Bloomberg Connects offers access to a vast range of international cultural organisations through a single click, with new guides being added regularly. They include several organisations in which Sung Tieu has shown her work, including MUMA, Caulfield East, Melbourne, Australia, Amant in Brooklyn, New York, and the Hamburger Bahnhof in Berlin. There is also a dedicated guide to the German Pavilion at the 61st Venice Biennale. On the guide to the German Pavilion, you can read a biography of Sung alongside her fellow exhibitor, the late Heinrike Naumann, and the curator of the pavilion, Kathleen Reinhardt. You can also see a range of installation photographs of the pavilion, including several images of Sung’s installation, which reflect the range of materials and concepts in her presentation. Also on Bloomberg Connects are dedicated guides to a number of other pavilions, including the British Pavilion, which in 2026 features a project by a former guest on A brush with… Lubaina Himid, as well as the overall guide to the Biennale Arte, which continues until 22 November.
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