‘Black Paintings’ is a series of oil paintings where the human form is given meaning by its absence. These carefully fashioned figures appear ethereal and wraithlike, their insubstantial forms mirroring the monochromatic landscape in which it is surrounded that is equally featureless and indistinguishable. A figure clad in business attire crouches in a corner, his arms pulled taught behind his back, his headless and handless body a haunting suggestion of deformity, but more importantly a lack of individual characteristic. In another image a headless figure raises his handless arms in exasperation in an isolated room, where the silhouette on the wall reveals his missing body parts as shadow. This depiction of the body as an absence, as a shadow, is a signature trait in Nguyễn’s works where the materiality of life hides or provides a kind of frustrating camouflage for loss of identity or control. This omission of human detail, masked in a color suggesting darkness, ignorance or emptiness is a deliberate ploy by the artist. He calls into question how social systems perpetuate cultural stereotype and assumption, whether through the media, fashion, television or political propaganda. By confronting such ideas, perhaps these black forms can be transformed into a different kind of human truth. Nguyễn comments, ‘Darkness always contains mystery and the unknown. Darkness sparks people curiosity to step inside to find the hidden truth, but it also creates worry and turbulence.’