Tag: vietnam

Dương Xuân Quyền

Paintings by Dương Xuân Quyền

Born in the Son Duong district of Vietnam in 1987, Dương Xuân Quyền is an artist and educator currently working at Tan Trao University in Tuyen Quang, Vietnam. He is a graduate of the Fine Arts Program at the Hanoi National University of Education. 

Dương Xuân Quyền works in the Vietnamese tradition of carved-woodblock printing on black paper as a familiar way to express the contemporary issue of gay relationships to the public. Having produced the initial print work, Quyền then enriches the image with colors from acrylic or oil paints. His current work contains images of male couples as well as lush, tropical scenes of natural habitat. 

From 2011 to 2015, Quyền regularly participated in the Northwest-Viet Bac Exhibition, one of the seven regional contemporary art exhibitions in the country. He also organized a 2015 group exhibition entitled “Sac Autumn” at Hanoi’s Exhibition Hall 16 in Ngo Quyen. 

Dương Xuân Quyền had his first solo exhibition in 2017 entitled “Love People of the Same Sex”, a collection consisting of twenty-two paintings and embellished wood-carved etchings on paper. In his work, he used tropical foliage and water taro leaves as the background for his presentations of male couples in romantic poses. 

In 2020, Quyền won the Third-Place Prize at the Northwestern Fine Arts Exhibition-Region III exhibition for his series “Delayed Appointment I,II,III”. In 2021, he again entered the same exhibition and won another Third-Place Prize, this time for his series “My Side Tells Stories About the Days Apart I, II, III”. Quyền’s second solo exhibition was held in Hanoi in 2022 and entitled “Vertical Flowers”. The show consisted of twenty-eight, large oil and acrylic paintings which depicted Duoc Mung leaves, a native plant well-known to the public. 

Insert Image: Dương Xuân Quyền, “Awakening Lovers”, 2020, Oil on Canvas, 80 x 100 cm, Private Collection

Images of Dương Xuân Quyềns artwork can be found at his Instagram site located at: https://www.instagram.com/xuanquyenstudio/?hl=en

Le Thi Kim Bach

Le Thi Kim Bach, “The Painter Nguyen Gia Tri”, Lacquer on Wood, Ho Chi Minh Fine Arts Museum

Kim Bạch was born in Hoc Mon district (now Ho Chi Minh city), South Vietnam. In 1954, she moved to the northern communist area as a result of the socio-political situation, which caused major turmoil in the lives of a great number of Vietnamese. She studied first in Hanoi, which later became her second home, before pursuing her studies at the Soviet National Fine Arts University in Kiev, Ukraine. In 1967 she returned to Vietnam, and taught for nearly three decades at the Industrial Fine Arts University of Hanoi.

Vietnam has a complex history of modern art involving indigenous forms like lacquer and silk art, as well as influences from French colonialism, American imperialism, Marxist-inspired propaganda art from both China and Russia, and now post-colonial globalism. Incorporating lacquer painting as well as Chinese silk painting and Japanese woodcuts into the fine arts, many artists have drawn inspiration from ancient lacquer works.

The artistic career of Kim Bach can be divided into two periods. During the first period, in the 1960s and 1970s, she produced oil paintings mainly on the theme of revolutionary war; during the second “Post Doi Moi” period, she painted portraits, landscapes, and still lifes on silk and experimented with lacquer. These periods are marked less by a distinctive break in style than by logical changes consistent with developments in her personal emotional life and those in Vietnamese society at large.

Nguyen Van Phuc

Nguyen Van Phuc, “Sacrifice”, 2008, Oil on Canvas, 47 x 59 inches

Nguyen Van Phuc, born in 1978, lives and works in Hanoi, Vietnam. He graduated fron the Hanoi Fine Arts University in 2003. He is both a painter and an installation artist using mixed media. His works have been showcased in international exhibitions: Lim Dim, Contemporary Art in Vietnam, the 2009 Behind the Scene in Oslo, Norway, the ArtAsia Miami Exhibition, and the 2008 Asian Contemporary Art Fair in New York..

Ho Thuy Tien Water Park

Ho Thuy Tien Water Park, Huong Thuy, Vietnam

Ho Thuy Tien is an abandoned water park in central Vietnam. Opened in 2004 at a price tag of three million US dollars provided by Company Hue Tourism, the water park was only partially completed. Within a few years, the business experienced problems and shortages of funds. As recently as 2013, plans were made to turn it into an eco-park; but these plans never reached fruition. Located eight kilometers outside of the town of Huong Thuy, it now exists as a overgrown jungle purgatory between worlds- with a sometimes quasi-guard at the gate collecting “admission” to the site.

Huynh Jet

Huynh Jet, “Hats Off”, National Geographic

“I was drawn to an older woman who was working very hard on crafting these hats,” writes Huynh Jet, who captured this photo in a traditional dwelling in Duc Hoa, Long An Province, Vietnam. “I climbed on a ladder and stood there until I caught the moment when she put the threads into the hat. A big traditional family in Long An has made and sold hats for over a hundred years.”