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Anh Duong

Anh Duong’s route to the screen runs through several creative worlds. Born in Bordeaux, France, on October 25, 1960, to a Spanish mother and Vietnamese father, she studied architecture at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris. An early ambition to become a ballerina led her to classical dance training with the Franchetti Academy and Tessa Beaumont, before fashion opened another path. After being discovered by photographer David Seidner, Duong appeared with Tina Chow in a Yves Saint Laurent campaign for Vogue. She went on to feature in international editions of Vogue, as well as Harper’s Bazaar and Elle, and walked in runway shows across Paris, Milan, London and New York. Her work included campaigns and shows connected with designers such as Christian Lacroix, Dolce & Gabbana, John Galliano, Yohji Yamamoto and Donna Karan. In 1988, Duong moved to New York City and began refocusing on acting and art. Her feature-film debut came in 1992 with The Mambo Kings. She later appeared in I Shot Andy Warhol and Lisa Cholodenko’s High Art, along with Laetitia Masson’s For Sale, Love Me and GHB. In Desiree Akhavan’s Appropriate Behavior, she played Nasrin, the lead character’s mother; the film premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in 2014. That film career sits alongside Duong’s sustained work as a painter and sculptor. After a summer spent painting at the Warhol Estate in Montauk in 1989, she made art an increasing focus. Her first solo exhibition followed at Sperone Westwater Gallery in 1991, presenting 12 large portraits. Portraiture—and particularly the self-portrait—became central to her practice, with Duong treating repeated images of herself as a kind of visual diary. Across acting, modeling and painting, Duong’s career has resisted a single neat category. Her screen work is selective, but it belongs to a broader creative life shaped by movement between fashion, independent cinema and portraiture.