Exhibitions
Galerie Quynh
May 29 - Jul 25, 2020
Do Thanh Lang, untitled (part), 2020, oil, acrylic and epoxy resin on canvas, 80 x 90 cm
All images by courtesy of GALERIE QUYNH
Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam – Galerie Quynh is presenting Lunar Breccia, a group exhibition featuring new and previously unseen works by Hoang Duong Cam, Sandrine Llouquet, Keen Souhlal, Vo Tran Chau, Do Thanh Lang, Hoang Nam Viet and Nghia Dang.
Like Alluvium in 201?8, this unusual grouping of emerging and established artists, each with distinct working methodologies, thematic concerns and use of materials, highlights the artists’ ongoing projects and serves as a preview of focused solo exhibitions to be presented at the gallery in the coming years.
The term lunar breccia refers to a classification of moon rocks created by meteorites colliding with the lunar surface. The debris from these impacts, comprising shattered pieces of ancient lunar rocks and meteoric fragments, are welded together in a fine-grained matrix – grains which seem to keep the motley of angular rocks floating in suspension.
As these fragments merge into a single breccia, the structure and its parts serve as an allegory for the collection of works on display – pieces which form part of ongoing projects, or are explorations for future bodies of work. Just as the lunar fragments raise questions of their lithic origins, the works on show invite viewers to consider the artists’ practices beyond the scope of the exhibition. The breccial texture reflects how this contextual labour of art – the research, the influences, the planned encounters and chance discoveries – can be at once structured and random (or perhaps serendipitous).
Though lunar here has immediate associations with the moon and thus evokes the notion of site – of outer-space, of galaxies, of landscapes real or imagined – the word also brings to mind ideas of time. Using the lunar calendar as a point of departure, the exhibition looks to alternative ways and systems of perceiving time. Even in the artists’ use of varied media there emerges a quiet ode to the idiomatic process of watching paint dry. As one waits for clay to fire, or for the pigment of young persimmons to seep and soak into each grain of fabric, the importance of time is denoted through the transformation of materials rather than productivity or output. In the shift away from linear timelines towards explorations of non-chronology, the exhibition and its artworks offer entry to heterotopia – a space that concurrently exists in time yet outside of time, both mirroring yet upsetting what occurs beyond its boundaries.
From this strangely humble moon rock stems alternate ideas of time and space. As one wanders through the gallery space, lunar breccias can lead one down new routes of interpretation. Indeed, the word breccia suggests openings, passageways, even breakthroughs. Much like lunar breccias, then, the coming together of these seemingly disparate works is as much a union of the old as it is a creation of the new.
- Do Thang Lang
- Hoang Duong Cam
- Hoang Nam Viet
- Keen Souhlal
- Nghia Dang
- Sandrine Llouquet
- Vo Tran Chau
[details & profiles]
Untitled,
2020,
Oil, acrylic, and epoxy resin on canvas,
80.1 x 90.1 cm
Untitled,
2020,
Oil, acrylic, and epoxy resin on canvas,
80.6 x 90.7 cm
Inhale exhale the spaces between galaxies (or The secret story between Haydn and his wig),
2019,
Oil on canvas,
183 x 149.3 cm
The hundred-year stake and the kingfisher,
2019,
Oil on canvas,
80 x 60 cm
Bo and Bye-bye-Tracy,
2020,
Oil on canvas,
130.3 x 180 cm
The second triangle,
2020,
Oil on canvas,
160 x 120.1 cm
Copper Tetra,
2020,
Fish traps, webbing, metal wire, copper leaf,
Dimensions variable
Reticulum,
2017,
Blanc de Chine,
10.5 x 17.5 x 7 cm
The Birth of Tragedy,
2020,
Graphite on paper, mounted on canvas and board,
120 x 60 cm
The Fire,
2020,
Graphite on paper, mounted on canvas and board,
120 x 60 cm
Grotesquerie,
2019,
Ceramic paint on ceramic tiles, silicone, plaster, metal frame,
61.5 x 61.5 cm
An-Najm,
2019,
Ceramic paint on ceramic tiles, silicone, plaster, metal frame, 61.5 x 61.5 cm
Where is the begining?,
2019,
Used clothes dyed with persimmon, thread,
94 x 133 cm
Where is the end?,
2019,
Used clothes dyed with persimmon, thread,
94 x 140 cm
Recognised as Vietnam’s leading contemporary art gallery, Galerie Quynh has been promoting contemporary art practice in the country for over two decades. The gallery is known internationally for its consistently focused programming and educational initiatives. Working with a select group of emerging, mid-career and established Vietnamese artists, the gallery also exhibits the work of distinguished artists from around the world. In keeping with its mission to develop a sustainable ecosystem for the arts in Vietnam, the gallery collaborates with artists, curators, museums and art spaces locally and internationally to organise talks and lectures as well as to produce publications in English and Vietnamese. In May 2014 the gallery founded the non-profit educational initiative Sao La. Currently spearheaded by Dalat-based artists Nguyen Kim To Lan and Nguyen Duc Dat, Sao La comprises a young, diverse group of passionate creatives working loosely as a collective.
A new chapter began in December 2017 when the gallery moved to a 600 square-meter space in Dakao, District 1. Spread over four floors, the gallery is able to produce more ambitious programming and play an even more vital role in the cultural community in Vietnam.
