Beneath Deep Rivers, Fields Submerged
Opening: 06 pm – 09 pm, Fri 13 Nov 2024
Exhibition: 09 am – 06 pm, 14 Dec 2024 – 19 Jan 2025
Wiking Salon
72 Nguyễn Thị Minh Khai, Ward 6, D.3, HCMC
From the organizer:
Wiking Salon is honored to present the solo exhibition Beneath Deep Rivers, Fields Submerged by Ca Lê Thắng, curated by Lê Thiên Bảo.
At 75 years old, Ca Lê Thắng appears to be in the prime of his creative career. From 2021 to 2023, he held two critically acclaimed solo exhibitions in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City, featuring his series: Floating Season. Both events received widespread recognition and praise from the art professionals. Not merely a continuation of his most recent works, Beneath Deep Rivers, Fields Submerged offers viewers a succinct narrative of Ca Lê Thắng’s artistic evolution. Featuring more than 20 works spanning various periods from 1991 to the present, the exhibition traces his creative journey.
Born in the South and relocating to the North at the age of six, still, Ca Lê Thắng vividly recalls the feeling of water rising overnight during the floating season. The vast Mekong Delta landscape is submerged under water. The exhibition evokes the region’s unique character, much like writer Sơn Nam described in The Buffalo Grazing Season: “Mount Ba Thê to one side, Mount Cấm ahead, Mount Sóc and Mount Đất across—once poetically majestic, now appear small and flattened in the vast expanse of water and sky.”
For Ca Lê Thắng, the floating season is a symbolic representation of memory rather than a literal subject. Through his works, he embarks on a contemplative journey, reconciling the shadows of war, longing for home, and overcoming personal loss. In the past, we saw him navigating through the chaos of his inner world. Now, in his latest works created between 2023 and 2024, the landscapes not only transform magically on the surface but also reveal Ca Lê Thắng’s intense brushwork—an outcome of over three decades of layering, scraping, pounding, and reapplying. These forms have now dissolved into the essence of his very being.
Gone are the influences of Joan Miró, Picasso, or Mark Rothko. Ca Lê Thắng has forged his own distinct artistic language.
“The Floating Season series has gradually shed unnecessary details, revealing the essential forms of a fertile, vibrant field… Compared to the October 2022 exhibition in Hanoi, what we see now is no longer fragmented depictions but bold, powerful strokes—the strength of the artist himself, fully embodying his emotional depth and the lingering sorrows that have awaited their manifestation on canvas.”
– Nguyễn Trung, 2023
The exhibition also features archival materials from Ca Lê Thắng’s dynamic years with the Group of 10 Artists (1989–1996), shedding light on his pivotal role in the history of Vietnamese art, particularly his contributions to the revival of abstract art practices in Vietnam following the Đổi Mới period.
(Excerpt from the curatorial essay by Lê Thiên Bảo, December 2024)
About artist
Ca Lê Thắng was born in 1949 in Bến Tre, Vietnam. After the Geneva Accords were signed in 1954, he moved with his family to Hanoi in 1955 as part of the national regrouping program.
In Hanoi, he began studying painting at the age of 13 under his first teacher, artist Diệp Minh Châu. From 1963 to 1970, he studied at the Vietnam College of Fine Arts. Immediately after graduation, he was appointed as a lecturer in the Intermediate Program at the Vietnam College of Fine Arts from 1971 to 1972. Later, he pursued a university-level program at the same institution from 1972 to 1976. During his studies, he received guidance from renowned artists such as Trần Huy Oánh, Trần Lưu Hậu, and Giáng Hương, among others.
Ca Lê Thắng’s father served as the Director of the Social Sciences Library in Hanoi. This connection allowed him early access to a variety of books, documents, and information from foreign sources and Southern Vietnam during the early 1970s. Despite studying art within the Socialist Realism educational framework, he developed an early curiosity and began experimenting with Cubism in 1975, gradually transitioning to Abstract during the 80s.
After Vietnam’s reunification, Ca Lê Thắng returned to Southern Vietnam in 1976, where he served as a lecturer at the Ho Chi Minh City University of Fine Arts until 1988. From 1988 to 2000, he was the Permanent Deputy General Secretary of the Ho Chi Minh City Fine Arts Association.
Since his graduation, he has consistently participated in numerous art exhibitions of various scales within Vietnam. During his most prolific period, from the late 1980s to 2000, he exhibited internationally at venues such as the Fujita Venté Museum (Tokyo, Japan), the Metropolitan Museum of Manila (Manila, Philippines), and other exhibitions in Switzerland, South Korea, Singapore, and more.
As a member of the Group of 10 (Nguyễn Trung, Đào Minh Tri, Ca Lê Thắng, Nguyễn Tấn Cương, Đỗ Hoàng Tường, Trần Văn Thảo, Hứa Thanh Bình, Nguyễn Trung Tín, Vũ Hà Nam, Nguyễn Thanh Bình), he regularly showcased his works at the “Recent Works” group exhibitions from 1989 to 1995, contributing to the revival of abstract painting throughout the country. Additionally, alongside Nguyễn Trung, he co-founded and managed the Ho Chi Minh City Fine Arts Journal, an influential publication released from 1991 to 1996.
For his significant contributions to Vietnamese art, he received numerous awards from the Ho Chi Minh City Fine Arts Association and the Vietnam Fine Arts Association. His works have been preserved in the collections of the Vietnam Museum of Fine Arts, the Ho Chi Minh City Museum of Fine Arts, and the Quang San Art Museum.
About the curtor
Lê Thiên Bảo divides her time between Ho Chi Minh City and Paris. Since 2010, her curatorial practice has been exploring the best ways to promote contemporary art in Southeast Asia by raising awareness and connecting artists and their communities. In 2023, Lê Thiên Bảo established Galerie BAO in Paris. More than just a commercial gallery, BAO serves as a bridge connecting art collections, production funds, and working closely with artists to realize significant projects. In a short period, BAO has successfully built connections with the Han Nefkens Foundation, SAM Fund for Art and Ecology, MUSEION, Nguyen Art Foundation, The Outpost, and various other private collections.
About the organizer
Wiking Salon is an interactive art space, connecting like-minded friends and partners with a mission and passion for developing the contemporary art ecosystem in Vietnam.
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