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Nge Lay
January 8th, 2026

oneATELIER is pleased to announce that our first in-depth studio visit of 2026 will take place on Thursday, January 8th, at the studio of Myanmar artist Nge Lay, located in the Saint-Michel area of the 6th arrondissement.

Nge Lay’s artistic practice is grounded in conceptual inquiry and critically engages personal narrative alongside Myanmar’s socio-political and historical contexts. Working across performance, installation, sculpture, photography, video, and documentary forms, her recent practice adopts research-based and documentary methodologies focused on migration, displacement, and precarity.

Much of her work reflects her inner perception of contemporary society in Myanmar, drawing on historical contexts and self-referential approaches. She places particular emphasis on the education system in Myanmar, examining how structures of learning intersect with power, control, and social inequality.

Following the military coup d’état in Myanmar in 2021, Nge Lay was forced into exile six months later. This experience of displacement became a critical framework in her recent work. Drawing on field research, interviews, archival materials, and lived testimonies, she examines migrant and exile experiences, transnational labour, mobility, and the politics of belonging.

She recently completed a Master of Fine Arts at the École nationale supérieure des Beaux-Arts de Paris, where her practice engaged with long-term, process-oriented, and community-based approaches. Across contexts, her work positions art as a mode of critical inquiry, alternative historiography, and knowledge production.

During this visit, we will have the opportunity to gain a deeper understanding of her ongoing process in creating ceramic works and to discuss her current video project, which is based on everyday recordings of the critical days following her departure from Myanmar.

While her website is still under construction, we invite you to check these reference of her profile if you wish to know more about her.

Born in 1979 in Myanmar, Nge Lay studied painting at the National University of Art and Culture, Yangon from 1999 to 2003, earning a BA in Painting (2003) and a BA in Eco (2004) in Myanmar. She completed a DNSAP (Master of Art) in 2025 at Beaux-Arts de Paris.

Nge Lay has participated in numerous solo and group exhibitions in France, New York, Tokyo, Singapore, and Myanmar. She was among the 30 finalists of the Sovereign Asian Art Prize in 2011 and 2020, and her work has been shown at the Palais de Tokyo (2024), Sharjah Biennale (2024–2025), Palais de la Porte Dorée – Musée de la Migration (2024), Documenta 15, Kassel, Germany (2022), the 8th Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art (APT8), QAGOMA, Brisbane, Australia (2015), Venice Biennale (2024, Open Section, Cité Internationale des Arts), Singapore Biennale (2013), and Children’s Biennale, Singapore (2019).

She also co-organises the “Thuyédan Village Art Project” in Thuyédan Village, Pyay, Myanmar.