KVT – Happiness is Dinh Y Nhi and Art Vietnam

Until July 3 Art Vietnam has pared itself into a conduit for happiness. Or to be more precise, a conduit for multiple observations of happiness by artist Dinh Y Nhi

Dinh Y Nhi’s expressions of personal happiness are expressed figuratively on Do paper and washed or swashed with colors that apply to her expressions of happiness

A lot of viewers will be immediately swept away into a state of empathetic happiness by the luminous – sometimes acidic – blue, pink yellow and orange

Other viewers will associate happiness with delicate or washed out pastels

Others will recognize why depths of happiness can be colored maroon, mauve or shades of blue, even a touch melancholic

Others know intuitively that shades of grey, even black and white, can encompass and embrace happiness that is as deep as a soul.

Some people who believe that they possess special sensibilities will be at home with their translation into auras (those invisible emanations)

Some viewers will want to know who these serried tiers of anonymous faces are.

Apparently they represent faces in ever-changing crowds that the artist observes each morning as she sits in her usual coffee shop

She textualizes it as:

Everyday, a little happiness
Coffee on the street
Smile of a stranger
Laugh of a child

She is ‘a quiet observer, making no judgments. She doesn’t analyze. She simply observes, following how she feels at that moment’

Of course Dinh Y Nhi’s understanding of happiness is not superficial or new-agey and, when one reads gallery PR, it is her understanding of Buddhist philosophies that colors these works. Those conversant with other philosophies of happiness may see a Confucian tinge; or perhaps a marbling of ancient Greek eudaimonia; and, too, a definite pointillism of modern ethicist argument.

Whatever! It’s surely one of the nicest celebrations of happiness that you’re going to witness this year in Hanoi

Happily for those who want to take a moment of happiness home with them, the inexpensive prices of the works will engender a lasting moment of happiness.

Gallery owner, Susanne Lecht, commissions a special designer outfit from Diego at CHULA to wear at the opening of every exhibition – and with his take on the Happinesses of Dinh Y Nhi, Diego has excelled with this very cool expression of silken happiness

Dinh Y Nhi’s recent outing in Hanoi was last month at Art Vietnam’s group show and we saw one from her recent JOY OF LIFE series

Some of my favorites are the 2008/2009 nudes from her stunning SECURITY exhibition in Thailand. The accompanying introduction to her, then, present and past work is very insightful and includes:

‘her artistic practice has evolved from questioning the position of women in her Vietnamese society and by withholding any solace, her imagery distils any stereotyped considerations of her gender. Since her graduation from the Hanoi University of Fine Arts in 1989, Nhi has pioneered a practice that has applied conceptual strategies to visual considerations. And maybe more than any other Vietnamese woman artist of her generation, she has earned her place amongst the most influential post Doi Moi artists to have emerged.’

Dinh Y Nhi has exhibited overseas since 1990 and a bit of an overview of her output and style is here

When I first visited Hanoi in the nineties I was conversant with the exciting work of emerging males who were being celebrated in international venues but it was a bit like immersing in renaissance and baroque art and the suddenly wondering where the women artists were hidden- and breathing a big sigh of relief when you discovered Artemisia Gentileschi.

Discovering the black and white works of Dinh Y Nhi was deliciously spine tingling and it’s fascinating to see that some motifs that she used in her early works are repeated in the HAPPINESS series

For a biographical outline of the artist click here

PS: Just about all of the ‘Happiness’ images used in this opinion piece were made available by Art Vietnam

1994

1998