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Exploring my culture through art
CULTURE ON CANVAS Nate Barcot, a junior at Kinder High School for the Performing and Visual Arts, with his piece Ăn Canh Khổ Qua Thì Khổ Qua (Bitter Melon Ends Suffering), which is on view at CAMH through Oct. 2025, along with his piece Tết, A New Year. He received the national Gold Medal, as well as a regional Gold Key, in the Scholastic Art & Writing Competition.
When I was younger, I didn’t like going to museums, and hated looking at art. Then, when I was in San Francisco, I saw Kehinde Wiley’s art exhibit An Archaeology of Silence at the de Young museum. I was completely blown away by the scale and colors, and the way he captured his figures. I began to learn his story of portraying these people from different cultures, and it was one of the first times I realized how beautiful art can be and how it has the ability to communicate such unique emotions.
My art has a lot of cultural symbolism containing deeper meanings that tie back to my heritage. I am connected to my culture by Vietnamese food, objects, and traditions that I grew up around. Exploring what keeps me connected to my culture can help people who struggle to understand their relationship with their own culture. Because I am mixed and don’t look very Vietnamese, I sometimes feel like an outsider to something that is part of me. Growing up, I’ve always felt most connected with my Vietnamese culture because of my close relationship with my first-generation mom and my grandma who immigrated from Vietnam. My pieces usually come from thoughts about cultural pressures, which I try to express through my art.
The large-scale works I like to create have been on wood panels, hand-stretched shaped canvases, and textiles. I tend to paint using acrylic paints and love to work with oil paints, mixed media, textiles, and sculpting.
This year I was awarded the national Gold Medal, as well as a regional Gold Key, in the Scholastic Art & Writing competition. I’m looking forward to the award ceremony at Carnegie Hall this summer! My Gold Medal-winning piece Bitter Melon Ends Suffering and Honorable Mention piece Tết, A New Year are on view at the Contemporary Art Museum of Houston from April-Oct. 2025.
The stuffed bitter melon shown in my piece is a traditional Vietnamese dish usually eaten around the Lunar New Year. This dish is eaten first to symbolize getting the worst of the past year out of the way. This piece symbolizes wanting to let go of past mistakes in hopes to be at peace with myself.
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