Cuong Nguyen's ability to highlight the beauty in the world around him is something that informs his art as well as his perspective. One might say that he represents the opposite of the tortured artist cliché: despite the fact that his formative years in Vietnam were characterized by significant hardship, his sometimes romantic and sometimes mysterious portraits and still life paintings reflect his positive outlook and determination to persevere. Growing up in poverty after the fall of Saigon, Cuong's greatest pleasure was finding time to draw. At a young age, he earned extra money for his family by doing street portraits, and he was accepted to Saigon's Academy of Art while in high school. Even as a child, Cuong was fascinated by the human face, and his single-minded practice of drawing eyes and other features rewards us today with portraits that have a spark of life to them. His study at the Academy of Art in Saigon was interrupted when he had the opportunity to emigrate to the U.S. in 1991, and the challenge of establishing himself within a new country and culture temporarily distracted him from his love of fine art. He earned a degree in illustration from San Jose State University and established a successful career as an icon designer with a prominent Silicon Valley Web company.