Cedric Vu "Afterglow" Acrylic Yarn on Cotton, Monochrome Tufted Portrait in Gray and Cream, Carmel California Art, Original 67 X 67 Inches, 2026

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A bald, silver-gray head rises from a cream ground, framed by pale folds of fabric that curl away on both … Read more A bald, silver-gray head rises from a cream ground, framed by pale folds of fabric that curl away on both sides and gather under the chin like a collar. The eyes are the only color, pinpoints of acid yellow-green set in softly shaded gray. Vu tufts each tone as its own patch of acrylic yarn on cotton, so the smooth modeling of the forehead and cheeks is really a mosaic of small steps from white through slate to near black. The dense pile has the quiet depth of a studio photograph, and the black frame sharpens its edges.

The cool gray and cream palette suits a living room with bouclé seating, a bedroom dressed in dark linen, or an entry with pale plaster walls. At nearly six feet square it can anchor a sofa wall on its own. It sits well beside black stone, smoked glass, aged wood and tall olive branches, and in a library its monochrome tone settles in quietly among books.

Acrylic yarn on cotton, 67 x 67 x 1.5 in (170.2 x 170.2 x 3.8 cm). Framed in black.

Cedric Vu tufts this piece with a tufting gun, punching acrylic yarn through cotton cloth stretched on a frame. With a reduced palette of black, white and grays, the image is built from small steps of tone, so the likeness comes from how the pile is laid rather than from color. The yarn gives the high-contrast, almost photographic image a soft, dense surface that shifts with the light.

Cedric Vu (b. 1996) is a French-Vietnamese, self-taught artist based in San Jose, California. He lived in Los Angeles from 2014 to 2023, studied narrative film and television production at California State University, Long Beach, and worked in film production and as a dancer before picking up a tufting gun in 2023.

He builds his own tufting frames and renders portraits in acrylic yarn on cotton, planning color and skin tone shade by shade. His work has been shown at the Triton Museum of Art in Santa Clara, where he also works as an art preparator, and in Busan, South Korea, with a museum show planned in Bakersfield. It is held in the private collection of stylist Law Roach. Cinema, literature, pop culture and personal experience feed his portraits. See less