In this two-man exhibition, Ho Chi Minh City based artists Nguyễn Văn Đủ and Trần Nguyễn Trung Tín demonstrate what curator Nguyễn Như Huy refers as a ‘Return of Painting’. Installed in the main ground-floor hall of ‘The Factory Contemporary Arts Centre (The Factory)’, their respective paintings on canvas and silk utilize unique materials (animal blood and sound, for example) taking the concept and technique of what constitutes ‘painting’ to a critically new space of interpretation in Vietnam.
Nguyễn Văn Đủ’s adept and gestural large scale canvases takes us behind the scenes, in to the abattoirs of suburban Ho Chi Minh City; while Trần Nguyễn Trung Tín’s silk work, replete with specially composed sound, takes us into a fictional landscape where each painting becomes its own character of fancy. Nguyễn Như Huy states ‘Đủ and Tín… show two different approaches to painting. However, the curatorial point of this exhibition is that both artists go beyond the political battle between tradition and modernity, to enter the field of making new expressive possibilities in painting’.
Nguyễn Văn Đủ (b.1986, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam)
Born in Ba Ria – Vung Tau, Nguyễn Văn Đủ ceaselessly learns and experiments with new media to bring his artworks to a more profound level. He graduated from the Hồ Chí Minh City University of Fine Arts, majoring in Oil Painting, his paintings focusing on exploring personal perception, formed from the impact of education and daily routine of traditional culture in Vietnam (a post-war society).
Intrigued by the way our habits are taught, Du is drawn to the ethical and moral questions behind nationalism and the violence that often ensues its pursuit. Đủ works majoritively in oil on canvas and watercolor on paper. However most recently he experiments with cow and human blood on various materials such as silk and paper.
Trần Nguyễn Trung Tín (b.1992, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam)
Tín graduated from the University of Fine Arts majoring in silk painting and currently works as an artist and illustrator. Since Tín prefers to let art do the speaking for him, his drawings become a shade of his expressions – the more he learns about people, events, facts, objects, the more he realizes his inner self. He calls his portraits a “canvas for creativity”. Some of them show his true feelings about one particular person, whereas others are completely fictional, the creative visions combine to express a specific mood or thought on current events crossing his mind.
Nguyễn Như Huy (b.1971, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam)
Nguyễn Như Huy, is visual artist, independent curator, art critic and poet. His art practices are concerned to the relationship between present and past and the intervention of different temporal-spatial dimensions. His works have been shown internationally in Japan, France, and USA. Như Huy has been writing, translating and publishing domestically and internationally on Vietnam contemporary art, culture, and art theory, and has been being guest speaker for the several international conference such as “Vietnam art post-Doi Moi”, which was held at Singapore Art Museum 2008, Asian Curator Conference organized by Japan Foundation 2010, “Alternative Route: Art & Cultural Exchange In Asia” in Yokohama, Koganecho Bazaar project 2014, etc. His poem in 2015 is selected and published in Stand Magazine, England.
Như Huy was co-curator for Singapore Biennale 2013 and since 2013 Huy has been being a curatorial advisory part for long- term project “Koganecho Bazaar”, Yokohama, Japan. Như Huy is guest curator for Brand New Project 2015, an annual project initiated by Bangkok Creative University that aims to introduce potential young Thai artists to Thailand contemporary art scene. In 2016 Huy is a co-curator of Kuandu Biennale 2016 as well as artistic director of the one-year Asian multiple activities and interdisciplinary festival Asian In/Visible Station 2016-2017 that is organized and curated by ZeroStation in Ho Chi Minh City and funded by Asian Center, Japan Foundation.
Huy was founder and is now artistic director of ZeroStation (). In general this is a project-based space with residency program for international artists and showcase space for local and international projects. The main concept of ZeroStation is to develop the kind of the contemporary art in Vietnam that is more engaged than spectacle, more critical than exotic. The main mission of ZeroStation is to create more opportunities for dialoguing, thinking, and working among local and international artists on social and cultural issues.
The exhibition will open on  10 Feb and be on display until  09 Apr 2017 at The Factory Contemporary Arts Centre, 15 Nguyen U Di, Thao Dien, Dist 2, Ho Chi Minh City.