VLC Band at New Contemporaries
2026Exhibition and Live Performance.
More information coming soon!
Commissioned by New Contemporaries, with funding from The South London Gallery and MIMA, Middlesbrough.
Friday 30th January 2026- Sunday 12th April 2026
South London Gallery, 65 Peckham Rd, London SE5 8UH
Friday 8th May 2026- Saturday 16th August 2026
MIMA, Centre Square, Middlesbrough TS1 2AZ
New Contemporaries are excited to announce the 26 artists selected by Pio Abad, Louise Giovanelli and Grace Ndiritu.
New Contemporaries is a UK-based organization that supports emerging and early-career artists through professional development opportunities, mentorship, and a prestigious annual touring exhibition. Founded in 1949, it showcases work from artists who are still in higher education or have recently graduated, providing a platform for them to gain professional experience and public exposure
Ngon Quá Calendar
2026A3 12 month Flip Calendar
double sided
16 pages
Edition of 500
Includes an introduction commissioned texts by Dr Lili Ly and Dr Angela Byrne, commissioned poem by Simon Lam, and the Recipes of Life participant’s Collective Recipe for Belonging. Special insert: Margate Beach trip photos and gold foil cover.
Buy online here.
Commissioned by Deptford X, with generous funding from Arts Council England Project Grant from the National Lottery.
Poster and graphic design:Loi Xuan Ly
Photographer 1: Louise Tse
Photographer 2: Wayne La
Set design: Kelly Loi
Proofreading: Simon Lam
Vietnamese translation: Koa Pham
With thanks to Recipes of Life participants, workshop facilitators Dr Lili Ly, Dr Angela Byrne, and Deptford Lounge/ Vietnamese Family Partnership (Quynh Nguyen) and Deptford X for the launch during Mid Autumn Festival 2025.
https://deptfordx.org/event/will-pham-commission-2025/
Ngon Quá
2025Socially engaged artwork
Multi-channel video installation
Hand painted wall mural & sound
12th July t0 27th July 2025, Deptford X Visual Arts Festival Core Commission, Lake Space, Resolution Way, Deptford.
Read press release here.
Commissioned by Deptford X, with generous funding from Arts Council England Project Grant from the National Lottery.
Image credit: Will Pham, ‘Ngon Quá’, commissioned by Deptford X 2025. Photo Katarzyna Perlak
Workshop facilitators: Dr Lili Ly and Dr Angela Byrne
Graphic design: Loi Xuan Ly
Set design: Kelly Loi
Mural assistant: Emily Pham
Gallery text: Trâm Nguyen
Poem: Simon Lam
Translation: Koa Pham
Video: Quyen Nguyen (QYNARI)
With thanks to all Recipes of Life participants, partner organisations and businesses including Lai Loi Supermarket, Deptford, Evelyn Community Centre, Vietnamese Family Partnership and Harley’s Flowers.
https://deptfordx.org/event/will-pham-commission-2025/
Above: Artist in conversation event with Will Pham and Trâm Nguyen, Thursday 17th July 2025
Image credit: Will Pham, ‘Ngon Quá’, commissioned by Deptford X 2025. Photography: Katarzyna Perlak, Photo editing: Loi Xuan Ly
Recipes of Life
2025Socially engaged artwork
Multi-channel video installation
Recipes of Life is a community recipe sharing and cooking project blurring the boundaries between social arts practice, therapeutic community approaches and continuing projects from the now closed Vietnamese Mental Health Services and the Social Kitchen. The Recipes for Life is a therapeutic concept developed by Australian therapist and chef, Natalie Rudland-Wood (2012). The approach uses food and recipes, to thicken the 'thin' or forgotten stories of people's lives in ways that make people stronger.
The Deptford X version will be an exhibition launching in July 2025 as part of the core commissions at Deptford X Arts Festival.
Commissioned by Deptford X, with the funding from Arts Council England.
Photo by Kvet Nguyen
https://deptfordx.org/
Photos of:
Making Recipes of Life Hot Pot at Reimagining VMHS Workshop, October 2023
Making Summer Rolls, Spring Rolls and Mango Salad at Central Park Cafe Newham Festival of Stories, November 2024
Making Vietnamese Lemonade at Royal College of Art, MA Sculpture, Annual Festus programme, November 2024
Making Hai Phong Crab Noodle Soup at Evelyn Community Centre, December 2024
Making Recipes of Life Hot Pot at Reimagining VMHS Workshop, October 2023
Making Summer Rolls, Spring Rolls and Mango Salad at Central Park Cafe Newham Festival of Stories, November 2024
Making Vietnamese Lemonade at Royal College of Art, MA Sculpture, Annual Festus programme, November 2024
Making Hai Phong Crab Noodle Soup at Evelyn Community Centre, December 2024
Making Banh Gio Vietnamese Pyramid Dumplings at ESEA Community Centre, February 2025
Newham Recipes for Life
2024Funded by Newham Council Festival of Stories
In collaboration with Nancy Nhat Vu. Borrowing from the VMHS/Social Kitchen project, Recipes of Life, involving local community chefs and sharing stories.
Newham Festival of Stories
https://www.newhamfestivalofstories.org/
https://www.newhamfestivalofstories.org/events/newham-recipes-for-life/
Islands of Safety
2024Islands of Safety was a 3 hour workshop led by myself for Festus, NESTING project led by Whiskey Chow, MA Sculpture, Royal College of Art.
Photos by Whiskey Chow.
Similarly to the workshop I taught in 2023 for MA students on Across RCA, this workshop continued themes looking at excercises and principles from the Vietnamese Mental Health Services.
We began students by doing a string connections game to warm up students to talking and sharing experiences of priviledge, each ball of string was passed onto another student who had listened to another student and felt a connection. We continued the game until the ball finished and resulted in a web of connections.
Secondly we watched a video clip from the BBC where they featured the Recipes of Life project ran by the Vietnamese Mental Health Services and the Social Kitchen. We watched as participants from that workshop shared testimonies escaping Vietnam by boat, and also sharing recipes and stories of resilience. I then shared pamphlets and information from the VMHS then demonstrated my own recipe my mum shared with me, Vietnamese Lemonade. Participants helped to create this and also took turns to cut and squeeze the lemon the Vietnamese way. We then drank together and it was very engaging for students who were shy.
We ended the workshop doing a body mapping excercise, connecting feelings emotions and the physical body through a somatic approach. Participants would lay on a yellow table cloth and map out their bodies, and through a series of mark making, annotations and colours, were able to identify each others feelings, present-ness in the room and ability to support one another.
A catalogue called FESTUS was created along with the other teaching groups and some notes are shown in the photos.
