Biography

Phong Bui is an artist, writer, independent curator, and the Co-Founder, Publisher and Editor-in-Chief of the monthly journal the Brooklyn Rail and the publishing press Rail Editions, as well as the Host/Producer of Off the Rail on Art International Radio. From 2007 to 2010 he was a curatorial advisor at MoMA PS1. Currently he serves on the boards of the Third Rail from the Twin Cities, the Miami Rail, the Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation, the Marie Walsh Sharpe Foundation, and the International Association of Art Critics-United States (AICA/USA).

Since 2000 he has curated 40 solo and group shows in various museums and galleries. Come Together: Surviving Sandy, Year 1, an exhibition that featured over 300 artists in commemoration of the one-year anniversary of Hurricane Sandy, was named as the #1 exhibition of 2013 in New York City by Jerry Saltz in New York Magazine, and in the New York Times Roberta Smith wrote, “This egalitarian show makes palpable the greatness of New York’s real art world.” Bui has interviewed over 300 artists, writers, critics, and art historians; written nearly 200 essays and art reviews; and drawn nearly 700 pencil portraits of notable personalities from various disciplines.

As a visual artist, his colorful, collage-like installations have won the Award in Art from the American Academy of Arts and Letters and the Eric Isenburger Annual Prize for Installation from the National Academy Museum (2003). Bui has taught at various institutions of higher education; since 2010 he holds a seminar in the MFA Photography, Video and Related Media Department at the School of Visual Arts.