Be careful what you set your heart upon – for it surely will be yours (James Baldwin) “I simply set out to paint the wishes of parents and of the next generation,” Tuan Anh says of his new paintings which explore the complexities of dreams and ambitions within a reality of rapid urbanisation and commercialisation. Baldwin turned the clichéd dictum Beware what you wish for... into something altogether more complex by adding the vaguely threatening stanza, for it surly will be yours, implying … [Read more...]

Guest diaCRITIC blogger Boitran Huynh-Beattie—a professor, curator and art historian in Australia—introduces a talented Vietnamese-Australian gay artist, Khue Nguyen. Last year, Nguyen was a finalist with his self-portrait, Unleashed, in the prestigious Archibald Prize of 2010. He is currently exhibiting his collected works, In Search of Sensuality, in Sydney. His art is expressive and evocative, with textural layers of differing styles revealing simultaneous meanings—especially his stunning … [Read more...]

Natalia Kraevskaia “Because we just have a limited farmland to work, I have to come here to earn more money to feed my children…We all have to suffer from a hard life, that is the reason to come here to make our living” “There are six members in our family and my husband and I are breadwinners. Now my children have to live with their grandparents while we two come to Hanoi to make money.” “Here some people shout at me… When I am at home, no one has such an attitude towards me. It‟s true … [Read more...]

He is regarded as one of the most exciting young contemporary artists. At first, however, Danh Vo, who was born in Vietnam and grew up in Denmark, was like a phantom in the art world. In his installations he links aspects of his own adventurous life with excursions into war and colonial history. Daniel Völzke met the artist, who is represented in the Deutsche Bank Collection, in Berlin. Danh Vo, Untitled (Christmas), 2007 Courtesy: Galerie Isabella … [Read more...]

21 May 2012 Photo: MARKUS TRETTER all images courtesy of DANH VÕ and Kunsthaus Bregenz The other day I went to DANH VÕ solo exhibition in Bregenz, and for his first major institutional solo event in Austria, the Danish-Vietnamese artist once again refracts the biographical history of the VÕ family’s emigration from Vietnam and an expression of political ideals. When he was four, his family fled the chaos of the post-war years in a boat. They were hoping to reach the USA, but instead … [Read more...]

From: Cristina Nualart Posted on 26 February 2012 Zerostation is a Saigon-based arts organisation that aims to connect Vietnamese and international art practitioners. It regularly holds exhibitions of contemporary art, which is not yet a popular form of art in Vietnam. The current show by Truong Thien is called ‘Plastic Bags’. For those of us for who the words ‘plastic bag’ mean disposable carrier bag, the title suggested environmental commentary. Not the case. Too bad – in a city … [Read more...]

From: Cristina Nualart Posted on 25 June 2012 The world’s landfills have been dusted with the discarded union jacks that briefly saluted the Queen of England’s jubilee last fortnight. This week the red and blue colours continue to make waves in Saigon, dominating two major art galleries. Two Vietnamese women artists, neither of them from this city, put on show two distinctive art installations, one red, one blue. Craig Thomas Gallery, veering from it’s preference for showing … [Read more...]

Recollection introduces the artist's new works centred on the common theme of recollection /"> recollection and memory. Lacquer painting is one of the most cherished features of Vietnam's artistic and cultural heritage that has survived and sustained through conflict and political upheavals. Not surprisingly, lacquer painting gives contemporary and modern Vietnamese painting that distinct identity and is the medium of choice for several prominent artists of today. Bui Huu Hung’s … [Read more...]

By: Alain Truong Binh Danh, Meditation on transmigration #4, 2007, Chlorophyll print and resin, 58.4 x 48.8 cm. photo courtesy The work of Binh Danh in Memory to Memory creates moments of awareness and memory between the subject and the viewer. In his serene and radiant photo portraits, the faces of executed Vietnamese and Cambodian victims of war or images of the Buddha, are printed on living tree leaves and grasses using a botanical process of the artist’s own invention, called … [Read more...]