KVT – Still Actively Tunneling

(Vietnamese version available – Đã có bản tiếng Việt)

KVT says welcome to a re-addressed oldie but goodie

KVT is always ready to celebrate a bona fida art gallery’s arrival to the Hanoi scene, even if in this case, it’s only a change of address and an addition to the ownership. So here’s a welcome to the Tunnel and, in the same breath, to nostalgically remember a couple of galleries that once played an important role in Hanoi’s contemporary art development

The Art Tunnel has been around since 1998 in a tunnel house in Hang Trong St in the old town and was ably proprietored by Nguyen Son Truong.

Now it’s relocated from the whirl and burl of that busy one way street to, some would say, the more sophisticated Opera House end of Trang Tien. It’s cheek to jowl with a few of the old, established commercial galleries that have been there since Adam was a pup, or at least since Doi Moi, and it’s very favorably located a couple of doors up from L’Espace

Arttunnel Gallery really is a tunnel, a narrow space that adorns its walls with art sourced from a small army of very fine established painters, and younger emerging artists who are attempting to break into the big time. Two images below are just after its recent re-incarnation

Sometimes it looks a bit full up with paintings lined up along the floor and stacked in the back space and at others it’s a model of small gallery elegance.

It follows the pre-white cube traditions when collectors or gallerists had their places hung ceiling to floor and even attached paintings to the roof.

Two stunning works are on permanent display as signature pieces (though I’m sure they’d be for sale if a discerning buyer with a lot of pocket money happened along). One is Fishing Village, an exquisite watercolor on silk by Dang Quy Khoa.

Another is a lush, rich lacquer, Royal Palace, by Bui Huu Hung.

The co-proprietor of all of all this new excitement in Trang Tien is Tran Quoc Hung who’s had a varied and very interesting working life in the art and cultural scene in Hanoi this century and who, like his art partner, has a reputation with artists and very canny collectors.

Hung began his career after graduation from University as an assistant at the now defunct Maison Des Arts near the temple of literature

Maison and Madam Nga (seen below at the opening of the gallery in 2007) helped launch a few stellar careers for some unknown artists

Hung was then head hunted to help out when Thomas Ulbirch came from Korea to open a very successful contemporary art gallery, Studio Tho.

………. which was in another, more spacious tunnel house in Ma May and where Hung really learned the ropes of the art business

When Studio Tho, above, closed its doors after also launching more than a few artists’ stellar careers, Hung went to employment in the Ministry of Culture and endeavored to influence policy towards contemporary art in Vietnam. Occasionally he freelanced and volunteered his time to arrange a series of, often, stimulating bi-lingual artist talks by some of those who’d made it to the upper rungs of the ladder in the past ten years

Hung has got an extensive knowledge of Vietnamese Art History and best of all has a vast network connecting him to very collectable artists, young and old. He’s also got a very proficient grasp of English. When I was visiting the gallery to get some background material I eavesdropped as he impressively and learnedly talked to a Spanish couple who were keen to purchase this large work on silk by Le Thuy.

And for those who also fall into the atmospherics of this young artist’s delicate yet sensuous work, here are a few more from the Tunnel Gallery catalogue

You have to be a risk taker to succeed in the competitive commercial gallery business in Hanoi and so far, for Hung and his partner, the risks are working as they have orders to display art in a few very up market, 4 and 5 star hotels (which sometimes accounts for some of the canvasses stacked against the wall) and the passer by tourists have been attracted to his window display and peeked in and purchased. If you go along to the Opera Hilton in the near future you may see some fine landscapes supplied by the tunnel

Hung’s first group hanging was advertised thus:

That hyper real car by Trinh Minh Tien was a huge success! The added advantage of Hung advertising so simplistically, but effectively, meant that inquisitive and not so art savvy art buyers felt comfortable discussing art trends and styles that sometimes leave the uninitiated floundering in an ocean of art theory and highfalutin language that makes them feel illiterate.

That appears to be one of the ethea, ethe, ethoi (?) of the Tunnel, to make those outsiders feel that good contemporary art is nothing to be shy of.

Hung’s network and local knowledge means that he attracts and/or persuades some appealing people to hang their work on his walls and his present exhibition has some nice examples.

Le The Anh is prominently displayed and has two strings to his bow, landscapes and ethnic portraits with the emotive portraits vying for passerby attention with his hazy, almost romantic landscapes

While I was quietly sitting in a corner in the gallery I noticed people appreciating the lacquers of Nguyen Hai Nam

……………the mystical faces of Le Tran Anh Tuan……………….

……..the bright and cheerful flower compositions of self taught and popular Vu Tuyen…………

……………and the contrasting landscapes of Lam Duc Manh and Duy Tung.

Click here for a comprehensive catalogue of represented artists and their work.

As I understand it, come December, the Tunnel is hosting a solo of works by art impresario Dao Anh Khanh and if these nudes that are already on the wall are anything to go by, it could well be a show not to miss

Before I left the new Tunnel I was captivated by two watercolors by Doan Van Toi that were hiding away in a back corner and they sort of made my day

Good luck to the new Art Tunnel enterprise and to the two who collate the works and to those whose work adorns the walls