Nguyen Manh Hung

“Our lives are filled with conflicts – sometimes sad and sometimes humorous. My creative practice is an exploration of aspects of the national and cultural history of Vietnam, as well as personal and contemporary life experiences. I don’t aim to talk about anything specifically, preferring to focus on the visual relationships of disjointed elements and unusual scales. Influences include early and contemporary Surrealism.” Born in 1976 and raised and educated in Hanoi, Nguyen makes art that reflects the comical situations arising from the rapid yet piecemeal processes of domestic urbanization and modernization. As a multi-disciplinary artist, he is equally at ease painting as he is creating large-scale installations or exploring performative work. Nguyen’s particular realist style encompasses a distinctive sense of playfulness and humour that sets him apart from previous generations of artists. As the son of a fighter jet pilot, he draws on the personal in his paintings of aircraft. Depicting military planes laden down with oversized grocery items, or else soaring across the sky with bushels from the rice harvest, Hung’s surreal scenes humorously morph a symbol of destruction with conduits of hope, benevolence and joy. ...

Recognized as Vietnam’s leading contemporary art gallery, Galerie Quynh has been promoting contemporary art practice in the country for over two decades. The gallery is known internationally for its consistently focused programming and educational initiatives. Working with a select group of emerging, mid-career and established Vietnamese artists, the gallery also exhibits the work of distinguished artists from around the world. In keeping with its mission to develop a sustainable ecosystem for the arts in Vietnam, the gallery collaborates with artists, curators, museums and art spaces locally and internationally to organize talks and lectures as well as to produce publications in English and Vietnamese. In May 2014 the gallery founded the not-for-profit educational initiative Sao La directed by artists Tung Mai and Nguyen Kim To Lan. Sao La has since evolved into an independent artist collective spearheaded by To Lan and Dalat-based artist Nguyen Duc Dat. In summer 2020 with support from the Goethe-Institut, the gallery launched the not-for-profit CáRô, an educational initiative that provides art education for students aged 13 – 18 who show demonstrative interest in the arts. ...