KVT’s January Briefs… Tet Art Affair @ Hanoi Creative City

Perambulating through Paintings

A nice way to spend the last week of the year of the Goat is to brave the chilly breath of winter and head for the fifth floor of HCC – which is beautifully heated.

The annual TET ART show is up and running and approaching a format that could make it a major event in the ARTY world.

‘Approaching’, I state, because it’s still in its gestational stages but with a few weeks and some major talent additions and definite discretionary deletions, it has the possibility – official blessing granted and official hands off allowed – to become one of those annual art shows that could be celebrated and become internationally acknowledged.

Thanks to HCC it has a space large enough to potentially put on a thoroughly decent event and has creative sponsors starting to back it.

For the local buying market it comes at a good time when those tasteful types with disposable dollars and dongs are looking for something to make their walls or nooks and crannies more interesting to look at when Tet visitors drop in; or are searching for a gift with something ‘extra special’ about it for those in the upper echelons whom they are trying to impress.

For the, hopefully, growing band of discerible local art collectors, it would give a central place where – in the best Vietnamese contemporary art, selected by the most honest and most discerning art curators, would be available to sort through.

Back to the here and now!

As is usual at these art events some artists are confident that their work is world class and have put world class prices on undeserving pieces… while some, who are definitely world class, are decently modest. If you were a collector hoping to collect future treasure and wanted to avoid the dross, it would be advantageous take along a person in the know – and who isn’t exhibiting – to help you out.

I did three turns through the assembly. The first in the way I habitually flick through magazines, from back to front.

On the second I dawdled from 1 to 232 and ticked off a short list of works that appealed to me (from a personal perspective, not that of a collector).

On the last I pretended that I had a few spare thousands to chuck around and chose a select few.

Number 6 by Nguyen Le Tan got my taste buds into salivational mood

I really liked the sort of primitive style lacquer of Ho Guom by Vu Duc Trung and a nearby misty Sapa lacquer by Nguyen Quoc Huy. Perhaps these two because I’d just come in from a 6 degree day outside and, like Mimi’s, my little hands were frozen

I guess because it’s just about time to release a carp to freedom I stopped for a while in front of a watercolor by Nguyen Van Toan and a triptych print by Nguyen Duc Manh and the turned around and got into a cheeky dialogue with Le Thi Minh Tam’s ‘Baby’ painted on silk.

Some cunning turquoise-y bits and pieces by Leonid Tsetkov were really appealing to me a lot of other perambulators

These excellent, grinning spectators by the inimitable Tuan are irresistible

While I could have imagined myself on Tao Linh’s bike and wobbling my way up Pham Hoang Minh’s urban street scene

The abstracts by respected Chu Ngoc Van were affordably excellent

This small minimalist canvass by Nguyen Van Chung caught my fancy

More than a few of these little bombies by Tran Cong Dung @ 500 000vnd per piece wouldn’t go astray

I guess the piece by Doan Xuan Tang caught my eye because it had the feel of the winter morning outside and the atmospheric drawing by Phuong Binh seemed to echo it while the glass sculpture by Le Huy Tinh was a frozen memory of summers past

The delightful, small portrait in oils by Bui Van Tuat allowed me to end on the same figurative note on which I began

After an interlude with Tuan Mami’s ‘Void’ video filmed in Chicago and in which the art gallery sequences were a bit eerily like the hopeful galleries nearby I decided to get to work and do some imaginary buying and ended up with:

Three small works by Xuan Dong

…a delightful monotone lacquer of a sleeping figure with black cat by (I think!) Trieu Tuan Long

…and a couple of boxed assemblages by Vu Dan Tan

And I’ll exit with a few more overviews