the world as a draft
11 am – 07 pm, Tues – Sun, 15 Mar – 13 Apr 2025
Manzi Exhibition Space
No.2 Ngõ Hàng Bún, Hà Nội
From the organizer:
In collaboration with Galerie Quynh (based in Ho Chi Minh City), Manzi Art Space is pleased to present the world as a draft – a display of new work by Do Thanh Lang and Nguyen Duc Dat, two seminal members of the art collective Sao La (*)
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.
(*) Sao La is a non-profit and independent art project/collective in Southern Vietnam, focusing on relationships among artists, community and art itself.
As the nature of a “space traveler,” not based on a fixed location, Sao La carries two main objectives: making contemporary art accessible to the general Vietnamese public through educational programs and nurturing Vietnam’s growing creative community. The project will serve not only as a project that organizes exhibitions, film and video screenings, workshops and lectures but also as an informal place for Vietnamese artists to experiment, challenge and develop their creative practices.
Found only in the Truong Son mountain range of Vietnam and Laos, Sao La is the name of one of the world’s rarest mammals. The word ‘sao’ on its own can signify ‘star’ or pose the questions ‘how?’ ‘what?’ or ‘why?’ ‘La’ suggests a shriek, call or shout.
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