Photo by Marisa Lamas (’27 Public Relations, Advertising, and Entertainment Marketing major, CCI minor).

The first thing visiting artist Phung Huynh told the audience at her lecture was to eat the donuts. “I’m an Asian mom, and I love watching you eat, so you can eat during the talk, you don’t have to be polite,” Hunynh said. These donuts came from the local and Cambodian immigrant-owned Friendly Donuts and were just a taste of the rich history and culture that Huynh’s talk had to offer.

From the food to the fine art, the artist lecture event featuring Huynh and her work dove deep into the power of community, identity, and the many forms of cultural inheritance. The serving of these donuts in their iconic pink boxes was more than just a tasty addition to the event; they were also an ode to the series of intricate drawings Huynh creates on the pink donut boxes. Reflecting her family’s history as refugees from Cambodia and Vietnam, each drawing tells a story. One features a memory of her father translating to newly arrived refugees from Cambodia in Mount Pleasant, Michigan, after Huynh and her family were the first Southeast Asian family to arrive there.

Huynh recalled powerful anecdotes from her family’s journey, exploring stories from her childhood and tying them to her recent research on the cosmetic industry and the pressures it places on women of color. She explored how these systems shape identity and how her work aims to challenge these standards and recognize those who feel underrepresented.

“As an art history student and a Japanese-American, I resonated deeply with the themes and stories she presented, including strict beauty standards and the ongoing fight for the repatriation of looted museum objects,” said Rylie Shimabukuro (‘26 Art History, CCI minor.) “To hear her speak with such empathy for so many people was heartwarming, and to see her approach these moments with kindness was motivating.”

Artist Phung Huynh. Photo by Marisa Lamas (’27 Public Relations, Advertising, and Entertainment Marketing major, CCI minor).

Five of Huynh’s works are featured in the Escalette Permanent Art Collection in the Guggenheim Gallery and Roosevelt Hall, and if you find yourself in the LA County area, you’ve likely seen her serigraph piece on billboards and displayed throughout the county. Huynh was invited, alongside other artists, to produce the original serigraph focused on communicating a positive message, with particular concern for Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) communities. Touching on this piece in her lecture, she explained that this project was a platform for empowerment and a source of knowledge for people.

“For me, the heart of this project is about social and racial justice, about inclusion and belonging, and about community care. I take this approach not only with this particular artwork, but throughout my artistic practice, which I am honored to share with you today,” Huynh said.

(Pictured in header: (left to right) Marcus Herse (Guggenheim Gallery Director, Fiona Shen (Escalette Permanent Art Collection Director, Artist Phung Huynh, Jessica Bocinski (Escalette Collections Manager). Photo by Marisa Lamas (’27 Public Relations, Advertising, and Entertainment Marketing major, CCI minor).