On view beginning September 19th, 2026, at Corey Helford Gallery in Los Angeles, California is artist Hieu Thien Nguyen's, known artistically as kelogsloops, incredible solo exhibition, "Love, Death & All Her Friends."

For kelogsloops, the most powerful stories often begin with a single moment. A feeling, a fragment of music, a color, or an image can become the starting point for a larger narrative–one that unfolds through dreamlike figures, atmospheric landscapes, delicate gestures, and moments suspended somewhere between fantasy and reality. With Love, Death & All Her Friends, Nguyen turns his attention toward the passage of time and the emotional experiences that shape a life. The exhibition moves through the excitement of new beginnings, the tenderness and intensity of love, the grief of inevitable endings, and ultimately, the realization that impermanence is not something to fear, but an essential part of what makes life meaningful.

“There is no bitterness here,” Nguyen shares. “But instead an honest look at what it means to love something, knowing it won’t last forever, but to find beauty in that anyway.”

The resulting works are intimate yet expansive, inviting viewers to bring their own memories and experiences into the spaces Nguyen creates. His figures frequently appear alone or suspended within vast fields of color and negative space, creating a sense of stillness that allows the emotional weight of each scene to linger. Rather than providing definitive narratives, the paintings operate more like fragments of stories—moments that feel as though they belong to a larger world just beyond the frame.

Nguyen’s signature watercolor technique further enhances this sense of impermanence. Transparent washes, luminous color, gold leaf, graphic elements, and expressive abstraction are layered with delicately rendered figures, allowing the physical process of painting to remain visible within the finished work. The result is a visual language that feels simultaneously fragile and highly controlled, balancing traditional watercolor techniques with contemporary approaches to illustration and image-making.

Storytelling has remained central to Nguyen’s artistic practice since childhood. Growing up in Australia, he was deeply influenced by manga, anime, video games, film, and fantasy worlds, with works such as Final Fantasy, Spirited Away, and Sailor Moon becoming formative references. Those early influences eventually converged with his fascination for artists including Monet, Gustav Klimt, Alphonse Mucha, Yoshitaka Amano, Shaun Tan, James Jean, and others, creating the distinctive visual vocabulary that defines kelogsloops today. His work is equally informed by his fascination with the Romanticism movement and its emphasis on emotion, atmosphere, nature, and the sublime. More recently, Nguyen has embraced greater restraint within his compositions, allowing empty space, gesture, and subtle shifts in color to carry as much emotional significance as the more detailed elements of his paintings.

That evolution reflects an artist increasingly interested in what can be communicated through suggestion rather than explanation. A figure reaching toward another, a body disappearing into a field of color, or a small gesture between two characters can carry an entire emotional history. In Love, Death & All Her Friends, these quiet moments become meditations on the universal experiences that connect us.

Beyond his studio practice, Nguyen has developed a significant international following through his commitment to sharing the realities of his creative process. With an audience of more than two million followers across social media, kelogsloops has become known for giving viewers an intimate look into both the technical and emotional aspects of making art. His online presence has also allowed him to challenge the perception of watercolor as simply a hobbyist medium, demonstrating its capacity for complexity, atmosphere, and fine-art expression.