Home Event Listings Art Đoàn Văn Tới & Hà Minh

[TGS – Introducing Artists] Đoàn Văn Tới & Hà Minh

Posted on 28/06/2023

The Grapevine Selection, was initiated by Hanoi Grapevine’s founder – artist Brian Ring exactly 10 years ago in 2013. The exhibition series The Grapevine Selection is an initiative within Hanoi Grapevine’s mission plan, which is to promote Vietnam’s arts and culture at home and abroad.

The Grapevine Selection 2023 is a bold experiment when placing contemporary works of outstanding artists, from painting and sculpture to installation in a space rich in cultural heritage such as the Temple of Literature – Quoc Tu Giam to a modern high-end industrial space like Audi Charging Lounge. Hanoi Grapevine hopes that the change in space will not reduce the audience’s experience of enjoying art, but will resonate with works of unique beauty, increasing the sensory experiences by cross-linking exhibition spaces and themes, a trend that will explode in Vietnam in the future.

The Grapevine Selection 2023 selected 53 artworks from 16 artists from the following areas of art practices: Painting, Sculpture and Installation with consultation from the Art Advisory Board.

Artist Đoàn Văn Tới

Đoàn Văn Tới was born in 1989 in Hải Phòng City and currently lives and works in Hanoi. He graduated from the Vietnam University of Fine Arts in 2017, where he majored in painting. His artistic practice focuses on paintings using diverse materials such as silk, oil painting and mixed media, how personal and collective memories are conveyed through them, using colour palettes, mixed media and a very personal way of creating the painting surface. Notable exhibitions he participated in include the International Watercolour Exhibition IWS in Hanoi (2015), International Art Festival in Pulau Ketam, Malaysia (2016), the exhibition “Đồng chất” (Homogeneity) at Ho Chi Minh City Museum of Fine Arts, and the exhibition “ƯƠM” within the framework of the Young Artists Incubation Programme 2019 by Vincom Center for Contemporary Art (VCCA). In 2022, he had a solo exhibition titled “Gate Gate” at the Indochine House Art Gallery and participated in the exhibition “Homeland” at Christie’s London.

A Dialogue between Modern and Tradition
“Before getting into silk, I practiced using acrylic and watercolors. Each material has its own characteristics with its own requirements and strengths. The clarity of the silk appealed to me, but the transparency and softness were a challenge. This inspired me to layer silk on top of one another or lay silk on top of an existing fabric. If you stop at the layering, the way to do it is no different from the “brocade” layering in the royal costume. I want to create a work that is more intimate, breathing contemporary life. Underneath the silk painting of characters, I put a layer of fabric with cut-out motifs (from floral fabrics collected in Hanoi’s markets). Using stitching, embroidery, and pattern organization techniques creates a symbolic, independent natural scene but interacts and changes with the silk painted above. Different viewing position or angle creates a different mixing effect – similar to how I perceive a diverse, objective reflection between nature and people (from observing people bathing in the Red River many years ago).

The stillness, the fluency of space and time, and the inspiration from Buddhist life help me practice the observation of my inner self. There I saw the image of free life, like clouds and flowers, just as it was. A spiritual world not only artists but everyone aim for.

I also noticed the time traces of the inscriptions carved on the rock in the caves, pagodas, and inscriptions that existed for hundreds of years through field trips. The cracks and defects mixed with real trees and plants are colorful. Collecting Han-Nom characters, separating them, and combining them into meditative poems embroidered on fabric evokes the writing of poetry in Asian paintings but in a random arrangement with amateur embroidery techniques to create dialogue.

Reflecting on concise, profound metaphors from Eastern culture that connect with contemporary life really opens up a cross-cutting approach to my artistic practice.”

Artist Hà Minh

Hà Minh was born in 1994, currently living and working in Hanoi. Form and color inform Hà Minh’s current work in oils. Hà Minh studies color by observing natural structures and landscapes and integrates with the inspiration of form from the human figure. At the intersection of these studies of shape and color, Hà Minh finds the core of the primary motivation. Hà Minh uses these building blocks to work instinctively. The artist aims to construct an escape through works where Hà Minh can grieve the loss of childhood and celebrate dreams, sexuality, and the diversity of human identity. Hà Minh is interested in exploring dualities through paintings: shape and chaos, form and abstraction, spilling over the picture plane alongside the value of white space: light and dark, colors and dashes. She aims to balance these seemingly contrary forces of “yin and yang,” femininity and masculinity, and explore the spectrum between them. This search for balance and contrast resonates with her heritage as a Vietnamese person and her background as a transgender artist.

“Welcome back to the world of childhood, where everything has a soul of life. You’ll never be alone in my fantasy world – it’s a safe haven for those abandoned, rejected, and misunderstood. Here, they are the most beautiful, mysterious creatures.”