Where Are They Now
Where are they now? — May 15 – June 19, 2010
“Where are they now?” opens this weekend at Alicia Blue Gallery in
Portland, Oregon. This exhibition of works on paper by Le Hong Thai and
Nguyen Van Cuong, is an intimate journey into the minds of two of Vietnam’s
best young contemporary artists. Both artists, living and working in Hanoi,
create works on paper that comment on the forces of modernization and
westernization that have been at work in Vietnam for the past 20 years.
Nguyen Van Cuong often paints with ink and watercolor on handmade mulberry
(“Do”) paper. The content of his work is audacious, like spoken word that tells it like
it is. Even today he is just one of a few Vietnamese artists whose work openly and
clearly cuts through the veneer of modern Vietnam to reveal its contradictions. His
work raises questions about Vietnamese society that allow us a deeper and more
complex perspective from which to inform ourselves about a country and people
whose history has long remained enigmatic.
Le Hong Thai’s work is also a commentary on the world we live in, but his visual
style is more likened to poetry. In the series of works on newsprint in “Where Are
They Now” Thai weaves a dream like narrative with recurring figures and imagery
that come in and out of focus and fade across the pages, encouraging the viewer
to literally ask “where are they now?”
Cuong and Thai have exhibited widely in Europe, Japan, SE Asia and Australia, as
well as in California. This is the first time their works are being exhibited in
Portland. Both artists are invited to come to Portland in 2011 as artists in
residence while they have a second exhibition at Alicia Blue Gallery.
Please join us on Saturday, May 15, 2010, from 6-8 PM for an opening
reception and meet curator Beth Gates and gallery owner Alicia Johnson.
Le Hong Thai, acrylic and ink on newsprint (detail), Nguyen Van Cuong, watercolor and ink on Mulberry paper (detail)
Source : http://hungryeyeball.com
