VAALA's Make it Home asks what home means at Huntington Beach Art Center
Work by Ann Le, Hung Viet Nguyen and Thinh Nguyen runs Aug. 28 through Oct. 24 in Gallery 4, with admission free.
The Huntington Beach Art Center is hosting VAALA Presents: Make it Home, an exhibition investigating the many ways home is defined and understood, on view in Gallery 4 from Aug. 28 through Oct. 24, 2026. Admission is free.
The exhibition brings together work by three multigenerational Vietnamese artists, Ann Le, Hung Viet Nguyen and Thinh Nguyen, across photographs, textiles, mixed media, paintings and conceptual interventions. Curated by An Le and Brenda Huynh, the show looks at how home is continually reassembled, reimagined and retold, shaped by the people and life practices its inhabitants choose to carry on.
The exhibition opened in Gallery 4, where the three artists' work shares the room across media that range from the photographic to the handmade. The theme grew out of VAALA's long-running focus on the Vietnamese American experience: home as something continually reassembled, reimagined and retold, rather than a fixed place left behind.
The Aug. 29 opening reception drew visitors to 538 Main Street for refreshments, the artwork and a chance to meet the artists, and the Art Center hosted a free family art activity in early September in partnership with VAALA, where visitors created picture frames inspired by the exhibition.
VAALA, the Vietnamese American Arts and Letters Association, was founded in 1991 by a group of Vietnamese American journalists, artists and friends to fill a void in the community and provide a space for newly resettled immigrant artists to express themselves. The historically volunteer-run nonprofit's four core programs include the annual Viet Film Fest, Viet Book Fest, multi-art exhibitions and Gallery Beyond Walls, which offers free art workshops for youth and community members.
Gallery hours run Tuesday from noon to 8 p.m., Wednesday and Thursday from noon to 6 p.m., and Friday and Saturday from noon to 5 p.m. The Center is closed Sundays and Mondays.
September brought extra programming around the show. The Art Center hosted a free family art activity in partnership with VAALA, supported by the National Charity League's Pacific Coast Chapter, where visitors made picture frames inspired by the exhibition, and it ran a guided tour of California Fibers: The Languages of Fiber with an artmaking activity in the Art Center Studio.
Make it Home shares the Center with California Fibers: The Languages of Fiber, an exhibition of fiber work on view in Galleries 1 through 3 from Aug. 15 through Oct. 24, giving visitors two concurrent shows to explore through late October.
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