KVT – Art Exhibition “Energy”

ENERGIZED IN NGO QUYEN

Energy is the title given to the exhibition of young artists work packed in over two floors at the Exhibition House at 16 Ngo Quyen….sort of opposite the Metropole and on the corner of Trang Tien.

The work has been chosen from up and coming artists from several provinces throughout Vietnam and when you stay with it and allow the confuse of tumbling images to orient themselves, it certainly pulses a lot of energetic vibrations.

In past years this display of young artists’stuff has had a few bits of precious gold glimmering through…occasionally it’s been a bit hit and miss. This one is worth a visit.

Imitation is said to be the sincerest form of flattery and if this holds true then some established Vietnamese artists will be feeling good…and a couple of the artists on show here may well be flattered too in the next few years. And a few of those artists being thus flattered were, not so long ago, exhibitors in such a show as this and are now major names in the art world. Even so, some of the work that is obviously, though harmlessly, appropriated is pretty good stuff.

And isn’t it the role of any good, young artist who studies art history and contemporary trends, to gobble up and regurgitate the energizing stuff that impresses and moves them?

Though a major proportion of the work is figuratively based, there’s a stream of abstraction flowing through that, at times, provides relief from the ‘message’ canvases.

Without any doubt my favorite work is Pham Tuan To’s attention grabbing ‘Darts’. No doubts either that soon this artist’s style will be appropriated…which is not the same as being copied! This strong, three-part work on wood could have done with its own wall. Really nice stuff!

Staying on level two I was also taken with Nguyen Duc Hung’s pop art style collage, ‘The World I Know’ with its obvious though pertinent observations.

Nguyen Van He’s ‘White Area’ floor piece with hammock is a good visual piece (it may have the wow factor if bigger and isolated). It’s the type of work I’m invariably drawn towards so just as well no one ever asks me to judge art competitions. My predeliction for stripes is too strong, even when they are in disaray.

Then, too, is my appreciation for Twomblyish bits and pieces, so the smallish, minimalist, ‘Inconsistent Conspiracy’ by Nguyen Hong Phoung was a winner for me in its apt but incongruous gold frame.

Downstairs I would give a commendation medal to ‘Houses by the River’, a big triptych by Do Duc Do. Makes you want to wander down there on a sunny spring day (if we are ever to get one this year).

The complex take on the oil drilling industry by Nguyen Van Minh is one of those stained glass effect pieces that you like to have on a wall near a couch so that you can lie there on a lazy, somnolent day and read its various stories and activities .

There’s a delicate, if busy, little print by Nguyen Van Thuat that refuses to stay hidden. It’s amazing how something small and black and white can immediately capture your attention amongst the big and the bold. (Gosh it’s hard to get a decent pic through glass!)

And to cap off my wanderings there is the really delightful piston vehicle by Trieu Minh Hai….wonderfully lyrical and perhaps an homage to the pre doi moi industial scapes. It’s another winner!

If I visited it again I’d have more, or different, favorites….so apologies to a lot of the young talents I’ve omitted.

If you visit, read Natalia Kraevskaia’s comments….they’re tucked away near the ‘Darts’, and, as usual, are relevant.

It’s another initiative towards fostering and exposing the work of young Vietnamese artists by the energetically involved Danes and is up until the 8th.