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Finest Artists 2024-2025: Bùi Bảo Trâm

Posted on 10/04/2025

BÙI BẢO TRÂM

Year of birth: 2000

Field: Visual arts

Bùi Bảo Trâm, also known as Rab, is a multimedia artist based in Ho Chi Minh City. Drawing inspiration from mythological, folkloric and absurd characteristics tinged with the sacredness of Vietnam and Asia, Rab’s practice encompasses the collection and transformation of both collective and personal memories to create works imbued with intimacy. This process delves into the interplay between personal privacy and the wider communal public sphere. She often uses imaginative writing to work with archives, creating new ways to read the data she had.

In 2024, Rab participated in several notable art projects, including presenting part of the project “The Twelve Midwives’s Notes on Creating the Toad” at Art Jakarta; participating in the group exhibition “Lotus Pond” at NGÃ Art Space; and appearing at the art far S.E.A Focus 2024 in Singapore. Rab’s project “Bug”, showcased as part of the Sàn Art Summer Pop Up: Saigon City Slang, also received the Sounds of Brotherhood Award from the World Youth Orchestra Foundation. Rab is also one of the co-founders of Bụi Tre Collective – an artist-run collective aiming to provide support for emerging experimental artists in Vietnam.

In January 2025, her multimedia artwork, consisting of ceramic installations and a seven-minute performance titled “My mother is a cicada” was part of the group exhibition “There is no center” in Jakarta, Indonesia.

“Bug”, Group exhibition Saigon City Slang, (2024)

“The Twelve Midwives’s Notes on Creating the Toad”, Art Jakarta, Indonesia (2024)

“My mother is a cicada” (ceramic), group exhibition “There is no center” in Jakarta, Indonesia (01/2025)

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Deadline for voting: 14 Apr 2025

HANOI GRAPEVINE’s FINEST is an annual event that honors contemporary art projects in Vietnam. The event is organized and nominated by Hanoi Grapevine and the general audience.

Entering its 6th year, Hanoi Grapevine’s Finest aims to go beyond an annual honouring event to become a contemporary archive of Vietnam’s art and cultural landscape, as well as a foundational platform to promote interdisciplinary collaborations both domestically and internationally, towards an open, fair, and transparent ecosystem.

This year, Hanoi Grapevine’s Finest 2024-2025 is divided into two major categories: Honouring and Recognition. Nominations are selected based on sets of criteria that aim to highlight the developmental significance and scale of impact, including activity level, community impact, creativity, organisational capability and artistic quality.