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My Name is Happiness?

Posted on 12/05/2010

Opening: Fri 14 May, 6 pm
Exhibition: 14 May – 04 June
Art Vietnam

Nguyen Van Phuc is an artist whose young years belie his wisdom and acceptance of the vagaries of life. Phuc in Vietnamese means happiness. Phuc, in his unequivocal quixotic manner poses this pondering question… My Name is Happiness?

The works that compose the first solo exhibition of Nguyen Van Phuc at Art Vietnam Gallery present many questions for the viewer to reflect upon. A convinced figurative artist whose draughtsmanship is to be admired for its precision, Phuc uses a muted palette founded on a strict observation and internalization of things and people in a dreamlike atmosphere. Time is frozen, the traffic of life is stilled mystery.

These works of oil on canvas reveal a beauty that is naked, not hidden, rough, not sweet. The basic instincts of man are expressed exposing all the contradictions and ugliness, the silly, strange, and challenging action of man. The works disclose the mixed feelings that imprison man and build pressure from within. As man tries to break free from these feelings the action may be funny or not funny at all, for underneath there is a deep sadness. Only when man breaks free by struggling inside to reach the absurd does he begin to move toward happiness.

There is a deep feeling of isolation in Phuc’s works, man’s inability to find a connection with society, an alienation from mankind. Everyman has moments in life when all is meaningless, all is an illusion. This struggle for balance and meaning in life are the cornerstones of Phuc’s work.