KVT in Manzied Mood

KVT enamored of Manzi style and Manzi ethos.

How often do you, or someone you know, feel like purchasing some really decent art work? Now we’re not talking here about decorative stuff, rather art from reputable or talented up and coming artists. Stuff that people with an eye for art will acknowledge its pedigree or promise.

Problem 1: almost everything you see in commercial galleries, and usually at exhibitions, is way over your budget

Problem 2: too much of what you see is so large that, even if you could afford it, you definitely haven’t got wall space wide or high enough to do it justice

Some under financed collectors or art lovers realize that if they want an extra special piece then its probably best to save up, get some advice from those in the know, and then have that one treasure they can cherish…even value.

Some want to have a collection of inexpensive bits but have no idea how to go about it…. or are deluded enough to think that good Vietnamese art should be able to be bought for a song ( usually a song as cheap as the ones that often float around my neighborhood  or that sound out far too loudly over the sound systems of too many eating and drinking places I try  to avoid.

Once upon a time, in the first few years of this century -and perhaps even now if you have the patience to look around- you could get nicely inexpensive art pieces ( I’m talking $150 and upwards) by a lot of  young artists who are in the top league today and selling for thousands. When Suffusive gallery was up and running I could have got, amongst other gems, excellent little ceramics by Ha Manh Thang and was stupid not too. When Bookworm had its art space for emerging artists I could have got bits for under $200 from young turks like Pham Huy Thong, Vu DucTrung , and Nguyen Tran Cuong. For $250 I could have got one of Vuong Thao’s old town fossil maquettes. If I had frequented that wonderful Salon Natasha when Vu Dan Tan was still alive I could have snared one of his super brilliant creations in glass fronted boxes for prices cheap enough to make you weep when you see what they’re worth today. If  I’d gone to Khoi Sketch when it was operational  in Xuan Dieu I could have got excellent works on paper, for relatively good song prices, by some of the best artists around. And if you pry around selective places like Module Seven you can sometimes spy a little jewel of a piece that is very much worth the outlay.

For a long time all of the truths in the text in the first few paragrapaphs in my ramblings above, have been crying out for a solution and it appears that one is here (and ,we hope, one that is able to keep its head above water and stay for the long term)

A team of creative Vietnamese have got together and gambled on a  lovely little place they’ve called Manzi. It’s a bar, a coffee spot, a tea house, a cocktail rendezvous and best of all an art space that will display good art at very reasonable prices. Manzi’s curator of art work has worked with cultural institutions and galleries and most of  the best artists and definitely knows what she’s talking about and if you are on a budget or only want smaller works, Tram’s one of those clever people in Hanoi with a finger on the pulse and most of the top notch art nerves of the city.

Manzi apparently opens officially in early December but if its soft opening period is an indication it is going to be a popular drop in spot for the hip, the bohemian, the arty, the sophisticated, the young and the not so, the intellectual, the philosophizing, the artists with talent and those hoping it may rub off on them, the bods like me who like to sit and observe, and most of all those who want to be in the middle of what is amongst the best of really affordable, and good, Vietnamese contemporary art.

On the walls for the duration of the pre- opening period is work by some of my favorite artists. There’s Ha Manh Thang, Vuong Thao, Nguyen Tran Cuong, The Son, Marita Nurmi, Minh Thanh, Ly Tran Quyn Giang, Nguyen Huy Anh and Nguyen Manh Hung. Not all is in the inexpensive range but those pieces that hang about in the thousands league are really truly worth the amount requested…especially if you are into the big time or want that one very special art work. But most pieces are priced deliciously low enough to tempt any one with a spot of taste for what’s nice in art.

Mind you, if you like small art works you can still discover a lot by keeping your eye open for what’s on around the traps and especially in some of the smaller art spaces that spring up and die down as the seasons take them. But if you’re busy, or lazy, not au fait enough and want quality….and, also, if you are your own art investigator…. then I’d suggest that you seek out Tram at Manzi.

Manzi is deliciously comfortable enough to become a habit.

Long, long ago, at least ten or twelve, when a lot of you were still wet behind the ears, I used to live at moi mot Ly Nam De and my favorite pho shop and my local flower lady were in Pho Pham Huy Ich and I used to think ‘what a lovely street!’ and waited in vain for a house to come up for rent. Manzi has managed to get what is definitely the sort of house I die for and they’ve renovated it that simple minimalist cum retro style that makes me drool.

Definitely worth a visit ,…and PS: there are a few little ceramics and arty nick knacks that are going for a song (more like a madrigal).