the world as a draft

Opening: 06 pm – 08 pm, Fri 01 Nov 2024
Exhibition: 10 am – 07 pm, Tues – Sat, 02 Nov – 07 Dec 2024, and by appointment
Galerie Quynh
118 Nguyễn Văn Thủ, Đa Kao, D.1, HCMC

From the organizer:

Galerie Quynh is pleased to present the world as a draft – an exhibition of new work by Do Thanh Lang and Nguyen Duc Dat, two seminal members of the art collective Sao La.

For two weeks in spring 2017, Sao La took over the former Dong Khoi location of the gallery to realize NGUCHONOBAY – an exhibition, activations, accidents and happenings that transformed the gallery literally into a living space. The creative community converged on the gallery to socialize, laugh, argue, experiment, sleep, dance, wash hair, look at art and engage in general human behavior; the artist-run Cu Ru Bar made very potent, local cocktails; the Onion Cellar hosted Jonas Mekas’ 5-hour visual poem As I Was Moving Ahead Occasionally I Saw Brief Glimpses of Beauty and curated free musical performances that brought together musicians from different scenes. Friendships were formed while some relationships broke; art was made, and some art broke.

I remember hugs on staircases.
I remember a mosquito net fluttering in the gallery courtyard.
I remember one of the Nguchonobay works having the shape (but not the texture) of a giant rat skin spread out on the floor, not unlike a carpet, in front of an old-school television.
I remember playing live with Rắn Cạp Đuôi at the opening reception for NCNB, where a great deal of things happened, including meeting Zach for the first time.
I remember whatever it was that Sunny’s piece was made of starting to give a foul smell the day after the opening.
I remember lying down on the floor of the gallery with a high fever and a party unfolding all around.
I remember stray cats, including one that regularly went into the gallery courtyard to do its business.
I remember taking a nap in the gallery courtyard after closing time as it started to rain.

(re-ordered)
excerpt from The use of memorial devices by Tran Duy Hung,
former Project Manager at Galerie Quynh
Hanoi, October 2024

In the world as a draft, the spirit of scrappy improvisation in NGUCHONOBAY is ever present: neon green leveling lasers crisscross walls; a make-shift conveyor belt clacking rhythmically but effectively transporting artworks; art is suspended by a rope pulley in a loungey, window-less room replete with cushions and a fake banana plant; cotton, nylon and PVC curtains are placed here and there depending on the need. The focus is not on polish but about making things work with what is at hand. This reflects the resourcefulness of the culture here – making can be an act of survival.

Do’s paintings take us to ambiguous places inhabited by anonymous characters often engaged in some sort of absurdity; sometimes violent or disturbing acts of transgression play out. Seemingly playful scenes unfold against a backdrop of bright colors and shiny surfaces. Do Thanh Lang often finds visual sources from the internet and news media and then transposes the images to imagined (non)locales. The scenes are not as whimsical as they initially seem but are filled with a tension that seeps through the layers of paint and resin.

While Do’s paintings communicate a sense of cool detachment, Nguyen Duc Dat’s works are more emotional and visceral. Everyday (offline) life, moments of beauty and strangeness in the world, and global socio-political conflicts are depicted with a rawness that moves between tragicomedy and honest, profound storytelling.

About artists:

Đỗ Thanh Lãng

Approaching art practice with a rare instinct — visible through the craggy edges of his canvases, or the occasional insect fossilised by his resin pour — Do Thanh Lang is aptly positioned to extract lightness from a dire situation. Dreamlike in all their hazy strangeness, his artworks are akin to pieces of a memory — a visual journal of altered consciousness. Not without humour, of a dark kind, Do’s works center around fragments of images and stories churned out by the gigantic machine that is Vietnamese online media. Just as one’s disposed garbage can speak volumes about how one lives, these images — likened by Do to ‘virtual trash’ – remind us that apathy is one of the world’s gravest dangers.

Born in 1986 in Ho Chi Minh City, Do Thanh Lang studied painting at the Ho Chi Minh Fine Arts University. His work has been shown in a number of group exhibitions in Vietnam and regionally, such as Salt of the Jungle, Korea Foundation Gallery, Seoul, Korea and Vietnamese Women’s Museum, Hanoi, Vietnam; Modern Wind, HCMC Fine Arts Association, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam; My Eldest Sister, San Art, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam; Fall, Café Tram, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam; Out of Nowhere, Sao La, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam; Art Walk, numerous venues in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam; and fluorescent fog (curated by Arlette Quynh-Anh Tran), Lunar Breccia, Alluvium, song of the cicada among summer poppies, Hopscotch and NGUCHONOBAY (curated by Sao La) at Galerie Quynh, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam.

Do has also participated in Spot Art Singapore 2014 (ARTrium @ MCI, Singapore) and undertaken the residency program Brown Movement at Heritage Space in Hanoi.

Do lives and works between Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City.

Nguyễn Đức Đạt

Born in 1979 in Pleiku, Vietnam, Nguyen Duc Dat studied Fine Art at the University of Florida. He is a member of Sao La collective and a co-founder of the art bar Cu Ru in Ho Chi Minh City and Dalat. He has curated for Nha San Collective and served as art director of Nha San in Hanoi. His works have been shown in a number of exhibitions including documenta 15, Kassel, Germany; NGUCHONOBAY #2: 2,99999 REALMS, 20/20 Gallery, Elizabeth Foundation for the Arts, New York, USA; Salt of the Jungle, Korea Foundation Gallery, Seoul, South Korea and CUC Gallery, Vietnamese Women’s Museum, Hanoi, Vietnam; No Cai Bum: The Dreaming Dalat, Dalat; No Cai Bum, Hue; Skylines With Flying People 4, Nha San Collective, Hanoi; and Out of Nowhere, Sao La, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam.

Nguyen has also curated and organized many community art projects such as March: Art Walk and Art Walk II, numerous venues, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam; dia/phuong ~ local-liti, Sao La, Dia Projects, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam; NGUCHONOBAY, Galerie Quynh, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam; and the zine Art and Law

Follow updates on event’s page.