Jam
es Dinh Resumé
12723 Park Street
Cer
ritos, CA 90703
562.841.2512
[email protected]
www.studiofolia.com
WORK
EXPERIENCE
2014 – present Principal, Studiofolia, Cerritos, CA
EDU
CATION
Master of Landscape Architecture, University of Califor nia, Berkeley Master of Public Health, with a concentration in epidemiology, University of California, Los Angeles Bachelor of Science in Biological Sciences, University of California, Irvine PUBL
IC ART COMMISSIONS
Curr
ent North Valley public art, Reno, NV – completed
Quincy Jones Square public art, Bremerton, WA – completed, with Michael Stutz Kahului Community Park mural, Maui, HI – completed, with Thinh Nguyen Leinberger Memorial Center public art, Woodland, CA – completed Montgomery County Law Enforcement Memorial, Dayton, OH – under construction September 11 Memorial, Indio, CA – under construction
Community Resource Center public art, Surprise, AZ – under construction, with Mandy Palasik Oakey Dog Park public art, Las Vegas, NV – under construction, with Michael Stutz Washington State University School of Medicine public art, Spokane, WA – in design development Bitter Lake Reservoir public art, Seattle, WA – in design development Villa Chiquita Park public art, Mountain View, CA – in design development Sp
ringwood Park public art, Kent, WA – in design development, with Lauren Iida Colorado Mental Health Hospital public art, Denver, CO – in design development, with Lauren Iida New Mexico Tech public art, Socorro, NM – in design development, with Mandy Palasik 2024 Office Building public art, Santa Ana, CA – completed Baltimore County COVID-19 Memorial, Baltimore, MD – completed Higuera Adobe public art, Milpitas, CA – completed
2023 Vista Canyon Multi-Modal Center public art, Santa Clarita, CA – completed 50th Anniversary sculpture, Cedar Park, TX – completed
Commemorative public art, Frankfort, KY – completed
Woman's College tribute, Uni. of N. Carolina, Greensboro – completed, with Michael Stutz 2024 CODAawards Winner, Education category
2022 St. Thomas University student memorial, St. Paul, MN – completed University of Nebraska public art, Lincoln, NE – completed Westminster Crossing affordable housing art, Westminster, CA – completed, with Thinh Nguyen 2021 Evergreen Cemetery Veterans Memorial, Gainesville, FL – completed 2020 Equity Fountain public art, Helena, MT – completed, with Michael Stutz 2018 Los Angeles County Peace Officers Memorial, Los Angeles, CA – completed Art in Transit Program, bus shelter public art, San Antonio, TX – completed National Native American Veterans Memorial, Smithsonian, Washington D.C. – finalist 2017 Of Two Lineages public art, Westminster, CA – completed 2016 David & Margaret Youth and Family Services Public Art, La Verne, CA – completed 2014 Circles of a Ripple public art, Hacienda Heights Community Center – completed Attachment 8
SY
MPOSIUMS / LECTURES
2023 Webinar: Rep resentation: the Crux of Public Space , World Heritage USA The webinar pushes the activism of creators into the forefront, featuring guest speakers from the United States of America and Afghanistan.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MmYqfagqZng
EXH
IBITIONS & WORKSHOPS
201
8 Viet Stories: Recollections & Regenerations , Richard Nixon Library, CA – exhibition designer
20 17 Impress, Orange County Center for Contemporary Art – participating artist
2016 Coastal Communities Cancer Center Temporary public art, Ventura, CA – commissioned artist
2015 Earth Day Temporary Public Art Installation, City of Garden Grove, CA – commissioned artist 40 Hues Between Black & White, Orange County Center for Contemporary Art – participating artist Re:Imagine Garden Grove, Garden Grove, CA – participating artist for community workshop
AWARDS
2019 Orange County Arts Awards Honoree: Achievement A
ward for Arts Leader
2017 American for the Arts Convention Scholarship
2006 Post-Katrina New Orleans East Design Residency, New Orleans, LA
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Image List
Image # 1, 2
Title Chur Chur
Year 2025
Location Reno, NV
Medium Steel and alluminum
Dimensions 18’ high x 12’ wide x 11’ deep
Budget $120,000
Client City of Reno
Collaborator Mandy Palasik, architect
Inspired by a workshop with art-class students from the local O'Brien Middle School, the sculpture has two components: branches and birds. The weathering steel branches allude to the area’s sagebrush and grasses, while the seven birds (that move in the wind) evoke flying geese formations that one can see in the area of the North Valleys Regional Park. The shape and color of the birds was inspired by the Mountain bluebird (Sialia currucoides), which is the state bird of Nevada that makes a “chur chur” sound. The birds also reference the racing planes that once flew from the nearby Stead Airport. The sculpture is intended to express a sense of aspiration, freedom, nature, and community. The sculpture's form changes depending on the viewers' position, as they drive or walk around the traffic circle.
Image # 3, 4
Title T.I.E. (Transformation, Illumination, Effort)
Year 2022
Location College of Education, University of Nebraska, Lincoln, NE Medium Painted steel
Dimensions 20' high x 14' diameter
Budget $100,150
Client University of Nebraska
Located in front of the new College of Education, the sculpture encapsulates ideas that are often associated with learning and education, namely transformation, illumination, and effort.
To
create a three-dimensional artwork that embodies the process of change and growth, a flat plane is conceptually cut and folded.
As light is a universal metaphor for the acquisition and dissemination of knowledge, both sunlight and night-time illumination are incorporated into the artwork.
Depending on the time of day and how sunlight hits the sculpture, the resulting light and shadow patterns created by the circular perforations on the sculpture change throughout the day.
The design also creates a welcoming gathering space that is inspiring and joyful.
Image # 5, 6
Title Of Two Lineages
Year 2017
Location City of Westminster, CA
Medium Steel, powder-coated aluminum panels, concrete, landscape Dimensions Sculpture 18’ high x 3’ wide, plaza 35’ x 35’ Budget $200,000
Client Vietnamese American Cultural Alliance
Located in the heart of the largest Vietnamese community in the U.S., the artwork is a contemporary re-telling of a traditional Vietnamese origins legend. The artwork conveys the hopeful story of the building of a new community from the tragedies of war. At night the
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sculpture is illuminated from within like a lantern, symbolizing the resiliency and hopes of the community. Surrounding the central sculpture are benches that showcase 100 portraits of everyday Vietnamese Americans, a collaborative project with the Vietnamese American Oral History Project of the University of California, Irvine.
Image # 7
Title Abounding in Rushes
Year 2025
Location Woodland, CA
Medium Stainless steel
Dimensions 84" high x 54" diameter
Budget $100,000
Client Yolo County
Yolo County is located in the Sacramento Valley area of California. Yolo comes from the Native American Patwin word “Yo-loy”, which means “place abounding in rushes", a reference to the land that was once covered with wetlands. The sculpture is inspired by Native tule-reed baskets, rendered in the shape of an acorn. The sculpture is “woven” from wave-like strips of steel that contain text in Patwin, Spanish, and English expressing the Seven Values of the Yocha Dehe Wintun Nation.
Image # 8
Title Circle of Time
Year 2024
Location Higuera Adobe Park, Milpitas, CA
Medium Granite and concrete
Dimensions 9' wide x 6' high x 10" deep
Budget $45,000
Client City of Milpitas
The stone sculpture resembles a large granite millstone, evoking the ranching and agrarian period in early California history when this land belonged to José Loreto Higuera (1778-1845) and was known as Rancho Los Tularcitos or “place of the little tules”. Muwekma Ohlone Indians, the original inhabitants of the land, used tule reeds to make boats, baskets, and housing.
Engravings of the plant can be seen on the face of the sculpture. The “window” in the middle of the sculpture invites people to look through and gaze at the historic adobe building on one side and the beautiful landscape on the other side.
Image # 9, 10
Title Memorial to Deceased Students
Year 2022
Location University of St. Thomas, St. Paul, MN
Medium Granite and cast glass
Dimensions 8' high x 5' diameter
Budget $60,000
Client University of St. Thomas
Four stone panels intersect to form a cruciform, symbolizing the earth and the corporeal body. In contradistinction, glass discs inset into the stone panels evoke an ephemeral lightness with their translucency. Their circular form symbolizes the heart and the eternal soul. Both loss and renewal are made visible through this void that captures light. The gradient of materials—from rough to smooth—creates a sense of revealing.
Collaborator
Confluencia
To be completed May 2026
Surprise, AZ
Concrete, steel, mosaic tile
12’ high x 68’ long x 36" wide
$600,000
Mandy Palasik, architect
Located at the new Multi-generational Community Resource Center, the art plaza contains organically formed terraced seating, reminiscent of canyon walls that have been eroded over time. The mosaic paving patterns of the plaza evoke flowing, swirling water, symbolizing the meeting of different generations, cultures, peoples, memories, and hopes of the community.
Shade structures, evoking clouds, have a mirror-polished finish to allow people to see reflections of themselves in the context of the community.
Confluencia
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SUNNYVALE PLAZA DEL SOL ART LIGHTING FEATURE
Radiant Ripples
Design Concept
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SUNNYVALE PLAZA DEL SOL ART LIGHTING FEATURE
1 Of Two Lineages - 2017
LiƩle Saigon, Westminster, California
Introduction
James Dinh is a Los Angeles County–based arƟst and the founder of Studiofolia, a collaboraƟve public art pracƟce dedicated to creaƟng site-specific works that resonate with community memory, idenƟty, and place. With a unique background in both landscape architecture and public health, Dinh brings a mulƟdisciplinary lens to his art.
His work centers on exploring the emoƟonal and cultural histories of a site, translaƟng stories into evocaƟve visual languages that foster reflecƟon and connecƟon. Whether honoring collecƟve experiences or elevaƟng overlooked narraƟves, Dinh’s projects invite viewers to engage with public space in meaningful and transformaƟve ways.
T. I. E .- 2022
College of EducaƟon, University of Nebraska, Lincoln
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SUNNYVALE PLAZA DEL SOL ART LIGHTING FEATURE
Inspiration
The artwork is based on two parallel concepts: Solar radiance (reflected in the name Plaza del Sol) and human presence as a generator of social energy.
Together, these form a unified idea: that light and community both begin from a point and expand outward.
The artwork transforms the exisƟng plaza space into a field of shared influence—where the presence of each person becomes the origin of expanding ripples of community-building connecƟons and effects. 2 Attachment 8
SUNNYVALE PLAZA DEL SOL ART LIGHTING FEATURE
3 Design - Radiant Ripples
The artwork is composed of a series of concentric rings that overhap to form a conƟnuous canopy of ripples. Columns anchored within the exisƟng eight planters provide structural support. At the center of each ripple there is an opening, with the middle void incorporaƟng the exisƟng light pole.
When a person stands below one of these openings, they become the point of origin—the source from which the surrounding ripples extend outward. As mulƟple people occupy the space, their “ripples” intersect overhead. The canopy conceptually becomes a mirror of the social interacƟons, movements, and encounters that occur in Plaza del Sol.
ExisƟng light pole
ExisƟng planters
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SUNNYVALE PLAZA DEL SOL ART LIGHTING FEATURE
4 Day
As the aluminum structure is open and lightweight, the areas between rings preserve views to the sky. The canopy defines space and creates shade while allowing the plaza to remain acƟve and adaptable.
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SUNNYVALE PLAZA DEL SOL ART LIGHTING FEATURE
5 Night
The lighƟng design also embodies the idea of the ripples reflecƟng the social interacƟons that occur in Plaza. Integrated within the perforated aluminum tubes are “star” lights that create a warm downward glow.
The illuminaƟon can be more concentrated near each circular center and diffuse outward, echoing both the behavior of sunlight and the way individual acƟons extend into the broader community.
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SUNNYVALE PLAZA DEL SOL ART LIGHTING FEATURE
Day
During the day, the artwork reads as a delicate sculpture of lines and shadow paƩerns that create constantly changing visual interest. 6 Attachment 8
SUNNYVALE PLAZA DEL SOL ART LIGHTING FEATURE
Night
Mindful of the residences around and above the plaza, the lights will only project illuminaƟon downward.
7 Attachment 8