Treasures from the Vault: Binh Pho

Sachi Yanari-Rizzo, Research Curator

Binh Pho was known for his intricate vessels made of wood or glass that were a means for sharing stories. A well-loved and respected artist and teacher, Pho traveled halfway around the world from Vietnam to the U.S. to discover his artistic passion. 

One of the earliest signs of his talent for artmaking was when he was around age 13. Lacking money, he fashioned lanterns out of bamboo and colorful paper for his younger siblings to use in the Lantern Festival during the Harvest Moon celebration. He began making them annually and selling them to neighborhood families. Much later, Pho’s turned wood works have pierced designs that allow the light to flow through; perhaps related to these early experiences. 

When Pho was 16 years old, he was left to monitor the family home in Saigon that had been used as a rental residence. It was during this time that he was given a camera and began studying drawing and painting with a local artist.

Pho’s early life was book-ended by war; the Vietnam War began the year he was born in 1955, and shortly after it ended, he left. When Saigon fell on April 30, 1975, Pho was a sophomore in college, majoring in architecture. As the North Vietnamese Army approached the city, he and his friends were waiting at the front of the line for the U.S. Embassy’s air evacuation. Although the U.S. airlifted 5,500 South Vietnamese people within 24 hours, Pho watched the last helicopter leave without him. He shared his memories in the 2014 documentary Last Days in Vietnam.   

Following Pho’s first attempt to escape the country, he faced imprisonment in the first of many Communist re-education camps. After one year he was released but was forced to work work for the New Economy under the Communist regime. For Pho’s fourth but successful plan, he was part of a group of 39 people, who traveled down the Mekong River to the ocean—among them was his future wife, Tuong-Vi (Vi). It is estimated that between 500,000 to 600,000 people lost their lives in their attempt to leave Communist Vietnam. After a harrowing, seven-day journey by boat, on October 5, 1978, Pho made it to a refugee camp on an island outside of Kuala Lumpar, Malaysia; he finally reached the U.S. in May 1979, reuniting with his family in St. Louis. 

Pho began working in wood after Vi bought him a table saw. He experienced a major revelation while watching the accomplished John Jordan conduct a demonstration turning wood on the lathe. Pho took classes locally with Leonard “Fletcher” Hartline, attended symposiums, and was influenced and mentored by woodturners including Michael Hosaluk, Frank Sudol, and Michael Mode. This was all while he worked full-time as an engineer to support his family.  

In 1998, Pho took a class at Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts with Sudol who adopted airbrushing and modified dental tools to create elaborate pierced designs. Pho’s works took piercing in a new direction beyond decorative patterns, and he enjoyed the negative space that the piercing created. The artist shared, “’To me negative space represents something mysterious and awakens one’s curiosity. . . It’s also Yin to the solid (Yang) surface. Most of my works have essence of Zen, even in the earlier pieces.’”ⁱ  

In 2000, Pho began incorporating imagery that held deep personal meaning. He painted by masking and airbrushing the wood surfaces. While inspired by his memories and experiences that spoke of his journey from Vietnam, his references are abstract and mainly told through metaphors. An example is Journey to Destiny (2003) in the Smithsonian American Art’s collection. Other works source legends.  

Although Pho became renowned for his turned vessels, he also worked in cast glass, like the museum’s new work, Journey to Blue (2014). The mediums held different meanings to the artist. He associated wood with the inner life—emotions and feelings; glass signified the material world. Sometimes he combined materials.  

Working in wood involved the consideration of color, grain pattern, and natural imperfections of the material. Glass, on the other hand, offered a large palette and a means to explore color. Journey to Blue is a vessel within a vessel. The outer part is made up of a screen of light blue branches extending upwards and transitioning to light green with touches of painted yellow on the tips. The lattice and rectangular openings provide views of the hovering inner vessel that is covered with pierced and surface textured leaf patterns. Because of its translucency, the outer shell changes tones as it overlaps with the darker blue inner vessel. 

Woodturner Hugh McKay, creator of a hollowing system that Pho used, helped the artist translate his highly detailed wood vessels into glass. Now the owner of Cast Glass Forms, McKay made molds of the original wood pieces and commented that the double vessel was “off the chart difficult.”ⁱⁱ Pho’s piercing required vessel walls to be turned and thinned to a remarkable thickness of 1/16 to 3/32 of an inch, which probably contributed to the challenge of making a mold.  

In Journey to Blue, Pho continued his practice of hand painting on the cast glass. Feeling a deep respect for nature, recurring motifs appear on different sides of the vessel, including dragonflies, butterflies, and peacock feathers. He also included a mythic, winged Gelkandar
from his fiction book Shadow of Turning, which was a collaboration with writer and curator Kevin Wallace. 

Pho recalled that Vietnamese children used to call a helicopter “dragonfly airplane.” As he was about to make his final escape attempt, Pho saw a gathering of the insects. He explained, “’According to ancient Chinese belief, the dragonfly brings dreams into reality and is the messenger of wisdom and enlightenment form other realms. . . Seeing all those dragonflies, I was at ease and hopeful, as they are supposed to bring good news.’”ⁱⁱⁱ His
daughter, Victoria, commented, “Dragonflies were seen outside his prison window when he was arrested and imprisoned by the Communists, so the dragonflies often represent hope, freedom, adaptability, transformation.”^iv 

Butterflies reappear in his works as well. While incarcerated, many prisoners secretly read Henri Charrière’s novel Papillon. Nicknamed Papillon for his butterfly tattoo, Charrière, the protagonist, was sentenced to life imprisonment but broke out. Pho explained, “Papillon never gives up his dream for freedom. Reading this book fed us hope.’”^v  

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To see more glass works, visit the Glass Wing during your next visit to FWMoA!

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ⁱ Kevin Wallace, River of Destiny: The Life and Work of Binh Pho (Long Beach Museum of Art, 2006), 122. 
ⁱⁱ Hugh McKay, email message to author, November 20, 2025. 
ⁱⁱⁱ Wallace, 74. 
^iv Victoria Pho, email message to author, November 15, 2025. 
^v Wallace, 55.