HCMC – Exhibition “The Three-Cornered World”

Exhibition: 27 Dec 2016 – 26 Jan 2017
Galerie Quynh

From the organizer:

“The Three-Cornered World”, a novella by influential Japanese writer Natsume Soseki, tells the story of an unnamed artist sojourning in a near-deserted hot-spring resort. Carrying nothing save for paper and paint, the artist seeks refuge in art and haiku amidst the remoteness of the mountainous region, driven away from the society of man by the turbulence of war (with the Russo-Japanese war raging on at the time the book was written, up to half a million Japanese were conscripted, many of them eventually perishing). Set at the turn of the 20th century and during the early years of a new epoch, the world of commotion Soseki hinted at carries eerie resemblance to that of ours today, considering events of the past 12 months. 2016 has been an extraordinary year, to say the least, marked, both on a global scale and closer to home, by the continuing rise of xenophobia, humanitarian crises, political conflicts, terrorist attacks, damaged natural habitats, and unprecedented global warming, amongst others.

In these times of uncertainty, not dissimilar to the protagonist of “The Three-Cornered World”, it is important for many of us to turn to art. More than ever, contemporary art should challenge, raise questions, instigate changes, inspire one to take action, and, when it gets too bleak be a source of solace.

With these thoughts in mind, for our annual year-end hanging, the organizer presents a selection of hopeful, contemplative artworks by Ha Manh Thang, Sandrine Llouquet, Christine Nguyen, Nguyen Huy An, Tran Van Thao. May 2017 be a year of more critical inquiry and passionate debate about our common humanity.

ABOUT HA MANH THANG

Born in 1980 in Thai Nguyen Province, Ha Manh Thang is one of Vietnam’s most important young painters. He has been featured alongside acclaimed artists such as Gerhard Richter, Marlene Dumas and Peter Doig in several international publications including ‘Painting Now’ (Thames and Hudson, 2015) and ‘Painting Today’ (Phaidon, 2009). Having graduated from the Hanoi Fine Arts University in 2004, Thang has held a number of notable regional and international exhibitions including Pueblos en Resistencia, 1 Bienal del Sur, Caracas, Venezuela; Instruments of Meditation: Works of Art from the Zoltán Bodnár Collection, Reök Palace, Budapest, Hungary; Connect: Kunstzene Vietnam, ifa Galleries, Berlin and Stuttgart, Germany; The rain and the small stream presented by Ernst & Young’s Asean Art Outreach program, Singapore; and Post-Doi Moi: Vietnamese Art After 1990, Singapore Art Museum.

Ha Manh Thang currently lives and works in Hanoi.

ABOUT SANDRINE LLOUQUET

Born in 1975 in Montpellier, France, Sandrine is graduated from École Pilote Internationale d’Art et de Recherche – Villa Arson in 1999. A dynamic contributor to the development of contemporary art in Vietnam, she was a founding member of Wonderful District, a project that promoted contemporary art through exhibitions, concerts and theatre pieces, as well as a member of Mogas Station, a Vietnam-based artist collective. Llouquet’s work has been exhibited in numerous venues including the Palais de Tokyo, Paris, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, San Francisco, California and Tate Modern, London. She has also participated in a number of biennales with Mogas Station such as the Shenzhen Biennale (2007), the Singapore Biennale (2006) and in Migration Addicts – a collateral event of the 52nd Venice Biennale. More recently she was featured in KENPOKU Art 2016 in Ibaraki, Japan.

Sandrine lives and works in Ho Chi Minh City since 2008.

ABOUT NGUYEN HUY AN

Born in 1982 in Hanoi, Nguyen Huy An is among the most dynamic and innovative artists of his generation. Huy An has participated in a number of exhibitions and performance art festivals including the 14th Istanbul Biennial – SALTWATER: A Theory of Thought Forms, curated by Carolyn Christov-Bakargiev, Istanbul, Turkey (2015); Mien Meo Mieng/Contemporary Art from Vietnam, Bildmuseet, Umeå University, Umeå, Sweden (2015); Residual: Disrupted Choreographies, Carré d’Art – Musée d’Art Contemporain, Nimes, France (2014); If The World Changed, Singapore Biennale (2013); sounds of dust (somniloquy), 943 Studio Kunming, China (2011); Anatomy of an assembly line with an error, Nha San Studio, Hanoi, Vietnam; Lim Dim, Stenersen Museum, Oslo, Norway (2009); Tam Ta, San Art, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam (2009); and the Nippon International Performance Art Festival (NIPAF), Tokyo, Japan (2007).

In 2010 Huy An co-founded with artists Vu Duc Toan and Hoang Minh Duc the performance art collective The Appendix Group (Phu Luc). The group has performed in festivals in Vietnam, Singapore and China.

Nguyen Huy An lives and works in Hanoi, Vietnam.

ABOUT CHRISTINE NGUYEN

Christine Nguyen received her B.F.A. from California State University, Long Beach and M.F.A. from University of California, Irvine. Solo exhibitions of her work have been featured at Hammer Museum, Los Angeles, CA; Huntington Beach Art Center, Huntington Beach, CA; Michael Kohn Gallery, Los Angeles, CA; Crisp-Ellert Art Museum, St. Augustine, FL; and 10 Chancery Lane Gallery, Hong Kong. Group exhibitions featuring Nguyen’s work have been presented at Laguna Beach Art Museum, Laguna Beach, CA; Pasadena Museum of California, Art, Pasadena, CA; LeRoy Neiman Gallery, Columbia University School of the Arts, New York; Churner and Churner, New York; San Art, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam; Dancing Elephants Project, Bogota, Columbia; Kunsthalle zu Kiel, Kiel, Germany; and Sprueth Magers Projekte, Munich, Germany.

Christine Nguyen currently lives and works in Long Beach, California.

ABOUT TRAN VAN THAO

One of Vietnam’s foremost abstract painters, Tran Van Thao was born in 1961 in Saigon. He graduated from the Ho Chi Minh City Fine Arts University. He has held numerous exhibitions in Asia, Europe and the U.S. and his works are in public and private collections in Vietnam and abroad. In 2002 he was the recipient of the Asian Cultural Council’s Starr Foundation Fellowship and spent four months as an artist-in-residence in New York.

Tran Van Thao lives and works in Ho Chi Minh City.

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