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Where are they now?

June, 25/6/2011 | 9:00 am



Le Hong Thai and Nguyen Van Cuong at Alicia Blue Gallery in NE Portland


Where are they now? — May 15 – June 19, 2010

 

Opening Reception Saturday May 15th 6 – 8PM

 

ALICIA BLUE GALLERY

1468 NE Alberta St., Portland, OR 97211

503-505-9060

 

“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

 

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