The serenity and celebration reflected in his work comes in striking contradiction to Tuan's own past. Born in Vietnam in 1963, Tuan experienced the fall of Saigon in 1975, survived a failed escape attempt from his native land in 1988, witnessed the death of his close friend in the same escape attempt, and was then cast into a concentration camp. Almost miraculously, he escaped the camp and fled to the United States where he became captivated with sculpting. In 1995, Tuan Nguyen received his fine art degree from the Art Institute of Southern California in Laguna Beach, CA. Tuan Nguyen has received the Gloria Medal from the National Sculpture Society (New York), a medal designed by C. Paul Jennewein and bestowed upon a young artist in Jennewein's memory for a meritorious body of work as determined by the luminary board of the Society. He has been exhibited throughout Southern California and has been commissioned for a number of public and private works, including a memorial bust for the Nicole Brown Simpson Charitable Foundation in 1997. Art is vital for me. It is almost a religion. It means to believe in people, in life, in love. It is a response to what is beautiful and ugly. As an artist I do what I do for no other purpose than to express my feelings. — Tuan Nguyen