Julia Huỳnh is a second generation Vietnamese Canadian interdisciplinary artist and Curator for the Southeast Asian Archive and Research Librarian for Asian American Studies at the University of California, Irvine.
As an award-winning filmmaker, her work has been screened at festivals including: ReFrame Film Festival (Peterborough, ON), Reel Asian International Film Festival (Toronto, ON), Aurora Picture Show (Houston, TX) and SEA x SEA: Southeast Asia x Seattle Film Festival (Seattle, WA).
She has nearly 10 years of experience in the GLAM sector including but not limited to non-profit organizations, artist-run centres, and ethno-specific community-based archives across North America. She’s deeply passionate about community-driven initiatives that support #SEAingHistory & #SEAingYourself through art, photography, and archives.
She has facilitated multiple workshops on ethics and care in archives, photovoice training, and zine-making to a wide-ranging audience of community members, student leaders, and post-secondary educators. As a co-creator of Empowered Phụ Nữ – an arts-based collective of first and second generation Vietnamese Canadian women, Julia co-led the Empowering Phụ Nữ (EPN) Photovoice Project and serves as a project advisor to a team of youth co-facilitators. She previously worked as a consultant/mentor for VOICE: Visualizing Our Identities and Cultures for Empowerment – a virtual photovoice project that sought to document the impact of COVID-19 on Asian American and Pacific Islander Communities across California.
Julia holds an MA in photography preservation, HBA in art & art history, and a diploma in fine arts. Some areas of research interests include: ethics and care in archival studies, oral histories, and investigating the use of photography and performance as tools to construct identities, communities, and memories throughout the Vietnamese diaspora. She has spoken about her research and art practice at OCAD University, University of California Irvine, Sheridan College, Association for Asian American Studies Conference (Madison, WI) and Association of Canadian Archivists Conference (online). When she’s not thinking about photographs, storytelling, or what it means for her to be a daughter of the diaspora, Julia likes to doodle, create with clay, and play animal crossing.
EXHIBITIONS
2024 Here/There: Chúng Tôi, Black Umbrella Gallery (Garden Grove, California)
2023 VESSELS, First Friday Art Crawl, Artspace (Peterborough, Ontario)
2022 Shifting Articulations of Asian-ness in Contemporary Canada, online
2020 Migration & Diaspora Shorts Program, SEA x SEA: Southeast Asia x Seattle Film Festival (Seattle, Washington)
2017 Union:In Memory of Vivian Duong, Sheridan Gallery (Oakville, Ontario)
2017 Feminist Artists Collective Exhibition, Daniels Spectrum Artscape (Toronto, Ontario)
2017 Life/Death/Life, 187 Augusta (Toronto, Ontario)
2016 Dark Room 5.0, 918 Bathurst (Toronto, Ontario)
2015 Shelley Peterson Exhibition, University of Toronto (Toronto, Ontario)
2015 Horizon Line, Blackwood Gallery (Mississauga, Ontario)
2015 Latent Being, VMAC (Toronto, Ontario)
2014 In a Blind Spot, Hazel McCallion Academic Learning Centre, University of Toronto Mississauga (Mississauga, Ontario)
Screenings
2021 Reaching Across Generations: Shorts Program, ReFrame Film Festival (Peterborough, Ontario)
2019 It’s Still You, Breakthroughs Film Festival (Toronto, Ontario)
2019 BAGEROO TWELVE! Volume 2, the8fest (Toronto, Ontario)
2018 Cultural Crossroads Screening, Aurora Picture Show (Houston, Texas)
2017 Been Here So Long, Reel Asian and Vtape commission for Ontario150 (Toronto, Ontario)
2016 Photophobia: Contemporary Moving Images Festival, Art Gallery of Hamilton (Hamilton, Ontario)
Published
2022 Exhibition text, Object of Affection, Afternoon Projects
2021 Essay, Archival Affections, Trinity Square Video
Refereed Publications
Huỳnh, J., To, P., Lee, C., Vo Dang, T., Tzu-Chun Wu, J., and Sora Park Tanjasiri. “Care during COVID-19: A Virtual Asian American and Pacific Islander Photovoice Project.” AAPI Nexus: Policy, Practice and Community 19, no. 1 & 2 (March 2022): 57–86. http://www.aapinexus.org/2022/03/29/article-care-during-covid-19/.
To, P., Huỳnh, J., Tzu-Chun Wu, J., Vo Dang, T., Lee, C., and Sora Park Tanjasiri. “Through Our Eyes, Hear Our Stories: A Virtual Photovoice Project to Document and Archive Asian American and Pacific Islander Community Experiences During COVID-19.” Health Promotion Practice 23, no. 2 (March 2022): 289–95. https://doi.org/10.1177/15248399211060777.
PRESS
2022 Trần, Nhân. “Documenting Language and Archive in Vietnamese Diasporic Autobiography," Diasporic Vietnamese Artist Network
2021 Dring, Julie. “Interview with Julia Huỳnh,” The Covert Collective
2021 Châu, Giao. “Raising Children Between Cultures,” Culture Magazin
2019 Schiffito, Lia. “Artful Historians | 306 Hollywood, Julia Huynh And The Art Of Cultural Preservation,” Head Stuff
AWARDS
2023 Spring Grant, Canonbury Foundation
2022 Grants for Individual Artists, EC3/City of Peterborough
2022 ArtReach Grant, Empowered Phụ Nữ Collective
2021 ArtReach Grant, Empowered Phụ Nữ Collective
2020 Neighbourhood Grant, Social Planning Toronto
2020 Best Documentary Award, SEA x SEA: Southeast Asia x Seattle Film Festival
2019 New Generation Award, Breakthroughs Film Festival co-presented by the Future of Film Showcase
2018 Graduate Student Travel and Prize Award
2018 Roloff Beny Foundation Photography Award
2018 Dr. Annie Smith Graduate Scholarship
2018 Graduate Fellowship
2018 International Work Experience Grant
2017 Dr. Annie Smith Graduate Scholarship
2017 Ontario Graduate Fellowship
2017 Canada's Young Women's National Leadership Grant
2015 Guido & Olga Pugliese Study in Italy Scholarship
2014 Roger Jowett Memorial Award for Excellence in Studio Work
2014 Faculty Award for Excellence in Painting
2013 Rummy Gill Painting Award