This contemporary artwork features a striking portrait of a man in a military uniform, rendered in a bold, graphic style using a limited color palette of browns, blacks, and pinks. The composition is centered on the subject's stern, determined expression, with the artist employing distinct brushstrokes and simplified forms to capture his likeness. The piece evokes a sense of power and authority, potentially referencing the historical context of the individual depicted and the artist's commentary on themes of authority and identity. Through this minimalist yet impactful visual style, the artwork provokes reflection on the complex relationship between the individual and the sociopolitical forces that shape their public persona. ...
Woven into Vo Tran Chau’s practice is the intrinsic emotionality of found fabrics and used clothes, retaining within them ambiguous, yet still pertinent histories. The act of threading together her squares of textile is as though a reconstruction of the stories lost in grand narratives. In her earlier works, Vo Tran Chau navigates various sites with cultural or personal significance, subjecting them to a pixelation that draws attention to the murky waters of history. The images, blurred from view, evade our attempts to see and point to the very nature of memory: hazy, and at times wilfully amnesic. In more recent works, the artist continues to explore the act of remembering, this time with those whose histories overlap her own. Her encounters with Jeju Island – its textile techniques, the personal stories, and the religious practice of Muism – inform her spiritually-charged works, asking further questions of life and death and reincarnation. Through her method of image making, Vo Tran Chau recognises the depth of historical wounds passed down the generations, and stitches them back as a way to heal. ...
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. ...
