Opening Night: Nhu Xuan Hua – Of Walking on Fire

You are invited to celebrate the launch of the first UK solo exhibition by Nhu Xuan Hua at Autograph's gallery, asking what is communicated – or withheld – across generations.

Nhu Xuan Hua: Of Walking on Fire will span both gallery spaces at our Shoreditch building, featuring newly commissioned work presented for the first time. Working at the intersection of art and fashion photography, Hua reflects on the fragility of memory and the ways stories are communicated – or withheld – across generations. She reimagines archival photographs from her family's time in Vietnam, and their early years in Europe, to create dreamlike digitally-altered compositions that shift between recognition and distortion. Across her work, Hua builds elaborate visual reconstructions that echo how memory in the diaspora can splinter, blur and slip from view.

Born and raised in Paris to immigrant parents who fled to Europe after the war in Vietnam (1955–1975), Hua grew up feeling a palpable distance from her Vietnamese heritage. Through her practice, she seeks to reconstruct a connection to her family's history – one that was often left unspoken. The exhibition takes its title from a Vietnamese phrase referring to a ritual of spiritual protection, in which one walks through fire to ward off illness and bad luck.

The opening night is free to attend. The exhibition runs 16 April – 21 June 2026.

Find out more or book your tickets on autograph.org.uk