HCMC – Group Exhibition “Mirror-writing”

Exhibition: 18 Nov – 17 Dec 2016
Galerie Quynh

From the organizer:

You are invited to “Mirror-writing”, a group exhibition featuring new and rarely-seen works by Hoang Duong Cam, Jamie Maxtone-Graham, Trong Gia Nguyen and Truc-Anh.

“Mirror-writing” denotes the act of producing a reverse script – one decipherable only when viewed in a mirror. In much the same manner, the show “Mirror-writing” explores the idea of subversion. Here, the artists on view make use of various intervention strategies to challenge traditional power dynamics surrounding an artwork, in the process turning the portraiture genre on its head. Breaking the fourth wall (here again, from the other direction) and placing themselves (and the viewer) within the topography of their art, the artists – mirroring, superimposed upon the subjects – also hint at the endless, interconnected threads that link one up with the world around oneself.

‘We don’t need other worlds, we need a mirror.’ (Stanisław Lem)

ABOUT HOANG DUONG CAM

One of Vietnam’s most daring conceptual artists, Hoang Duong Cam was born 1974 in Hanoi and completed his studies at the Hanoi University of Fine Arts in 1996. Hoang has participated in numerous exhibitions and biennales in Asia, North America and Europe. Notable exhibitions include Eagles Fly, Sheep Flock: Biographical Imprints – Artistic Practices in Southeast Asia, curated by Khim Ong for Art Stage Singapore 2015: Southeast Asia Platform; Electronic Pacific, SOMArts, San Francisco; VideoZone 5, the 5th International Video Art Biennial, Tel Aviv, Israel; Daegu Photo Biennale, Daegu, South Korea; Arts and Cities, Aichi Triennale, Nagoya, Japan; Connect: Art Scene Vietnam, ifa Galerie Berlin and Stuttgart, Germany; Fluid Zone, Jakarta Biennale, Indonesia; Post-Doi Moi: Vietnamese Art After 1990, Singapore Art Museum, Singapore; the 3rd Guangzhou Triennial, Guangdong Museum, Guangzhou, China; Migration Addicts (Mogas Station), a collateral event of the 52nd Venice Biennale, Venice, Italy; Thermocline of Art. New Asian Waves, ZKM | Museum of Contemporary Art, Karlsruhe, Germany; and Belief (Mogas Station), Singapore Biennale 2006. In 2009 he held a residency at the acclaimed Tokyo Wonder Site, Japan.

Hoang Duong Cam has been living and working in Ho Chi Minh City since 2001.

ABOUT JAMIE MAXTONE GRAHAM

A native of Connecticut, USA, Jamie Maxtone-Graham has been working for more than 20 years in the field of narrative cinematography, engendering an eclectic body of works ranging from independent films, mainstream feature films, episodic television, and photography. He first came to Vietnam in 1990 for the feature documentary From Hollywood to Hanoi and returned a number of times before calling Hanoi his home. In 2007 Maxtone-Graham was awarded a Fulbright Research Fellowship to pursue State of Youth, a photography project on contemporary youth culture in Vietnam. He has published numerous photography portfolios in notable publications such as burn Magazine, Trans Asia Photography Review, Culturehall, Invisible Photographer Asia, and Photography & Culture. His photographs have been featured in exhibitions in Europe and Asia including Money – Les Nuits Photographiques, Paris, France (2015), That Little Distance, Galerie Quynh, Vietnam (2014), ASEAN, Le Magasin de Jouets, Arles, France (2013); Terra Cognita: Noorderlich Photofestival, Groningen, Netherlands (2012); Media/Art Kitchen, Galeri Nasional Indonesia, Jakarta (2013); and The Desiring Garden, Kathmandu Photo Gallery, Bangkok, Thailand (2012).

Jamie Maxtone-Graham lives and works in Hanoi.

ABOUT TRONG GIA NGUYEN

Often employing humor while at other times engaging sober reflection, Trong Gia Nguyen’s work elevates the condition of doubt and reveals the power structures behind our most trusted institutions and beliefs as they relate to the dynamics of domesticity, culture, politics, and economy. Self-reflexive by nature, Nguyen’s methods question the status quo through subtle modes of subversion and interruption. On the flipside, it is an aesthetically pessimistic vantage point, one of retreat that espouses a dimension of decadence, at the expense of charlatanism. Whether taking the form of sculpture, painting, iPhone applications, film, or web-based performance actions, Nguyen’s conceptual approach walks the fine line between joy and sorrow, subtlety and blatancy, night and light, and beauty and beast. Nguyen has exhibited widely in the U.S. and abroad, with recent solo shows at Galerie Quynh, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam (2015); Art Virus, Frankfurt, Germany (2013); QF Gallery, New York, USA (2012); Coleman Burke Gallery, New York, USA (2011); and Galerie ZK, Berlin, Germany (2010). Group exhibitions include The Others, Piazzale Valdo Fusi, Torino, Italy (2015); Eye on the Storm, Housatonic Museum of Art, Connecticut, USA; Satellites in the Night, Freies Museum, Berlin, Germany (2010); The Sixth Borough, Governors Island, USA (2010); Sequences, Reykjavik, Iceland (2008); 9th Havana Biennial, Havana, Cuba (2006); Float, Socrates Sculpture Park, New York, USA (2007); and Performa, Artists Space, New York, USA (2005).

Nguyen lives and works between Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam and Brooklyn, New York.

ABOUT TRUC-ANH

Born in 1983 in Paris, Truc-Anh studied at École Boulle, École Supérieure des Arts Appliqués, Paris; ECAL, Haute École d’Art et de Design, Lausanne, Switzerland; and La Cambre, École Nationale Supérieure des Arts Visuels, Brussels, Belgium. Throughout his career, he has worked in a variety of media, including painting, photography, video, drawing, sculpture and performance. Truc-Anh has exhibited in numerous exhibitions in Europe, Asia and United States, most notably in 30 ans du Mai-Photogaphies curated by Claire Bresson, and White Spirit Part 1 & 2 curated by Tania Nasielski. Recent solo exhibitions include Vacuphilia at Varola Gallery, Los Angeles (2016), Ink Kingdom at Galerie Sator, Paris (2015); Archipel, at Galerie Albus Lux, Roosendaal, The Netherlands (2015); and oNiReaKHoWaRiGNoRaLiSMe, Galerie Quynh, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam (2014). Truc-Anh’s work has also been featured in Sounds of Silence (De stem van de stilte) at Museum CODA, Apeldoorn, the Netherlands (2014), and showcased in some important art fairs: Art Stage Singapore (2016), Drawing Now, Paris (2015 and 2014), Solo Project Art Fair, Basel, Switzerland (2014), and Delhi Photo Festival, New Delhi (2013).

Truc-Anh lives and works between Ho Chi Minh City, Paris and Los Angeles.