KVT at Young Artist’s Club

A party in search of some art

The Young Artist’s Club (and perhaps some not too young artists) had an exhibition bash on the second floor of 16 Ngo Quyen on Wednesday. It was a huge self congratulatory show and if you get to see it (preferably on the way to the really good exhibition at L’Espace) you’ll be as overwhelmed with the number of works all over the place and as under whelmed with the quality of the work as I was.

I was perplexed because I went along expecting to see the high quality work that so many young artists are turning out and experimenting with in Hanoi but generally all I got were tired old bits pulled out from behind mouldering stacks of canvases in a studio, pieces from years ago, pieces so derivative that they were laughable, pieces only worthy of untrained amateurs, pieces that needed much more resolution and a few new bits that were cramped into whatever space could be found.

Surely the club has some sort of curatorial criterion to protect its ethos and the reputations of club members. All came off second best at this show. I saw one of their exhibitions a couple of years ago in the same venue and it was much more classy and exciting. This one was a huge, disappointing yawn.

For me the best works out of the dog’s breakfast on show were the fresh and rippling faces by Luong Trung and Le Van Than, the Technicolor drawing by Le Xuan Hung Linh. The smaller pieces were almost swallowed up but the littlies by Nguyen Khanh Toan and Nguyen Ngoc Quan were a relief after the dross.

Sorry about the criticisms, young, and not so young, Artist Club members – but you should have seen my scribbled thoughts before I tamed them down.

I hope to be more impressed next year….unless you’ve all become too complacent to worry about your real audience….the general public.