Onward and upward! Art Vietnam Gallery is delighted to announce that we have moved to our new location just down the street from St. Josephs Cathedral at 24 Ly Quoc Su. The last 3 years we have been working out of Art Vietnam Salon, an intimate salon style gallery conceived and constructed by art director Suzanne Lecht and her artist friends in 1994, a three story house inspired by the architecture of a Vietnamese pagoda with an ethnic minority White Thai house from Mai Chau erected on top. We have had a wonderful, quiet three years working from this location and will continue to use the salon gallery for private parties, consultations and groups that would like to have a more intimate, traditional encounter with the arts of Vietnam. Now we are delighted to be in the heart of the art scene. Our new 2 floor light filled location in the center of the old quarter is slowly evolving into the new art zone for Hanoi with the Nha San Collective and the Ly Quoc Su Art Café (LACA) as Art Vietnam’s neighbors, along with Barbetta below for evening entertainment. There is promise of an electric synergy as all of us at the new art zone work together to build the arts of Vietnam with art talks, exhibitions, music performances, video, installation, sculpture and performance. Art Vietnam Gallery will have its official grand opening Saturday December 13, 2014 with a celebration of life and art in Vietnam. We will mount the 20 year retrospective of our veteran artist Nguyen Cam. Cam was born in Hai Phong in 1944, his early life defined by exile and exodus. He was born and raised in Viet Nam during the first Indochina War. After a bomb destroyed his family home, Cam journeyed north for 5 years with his family through small villages and bush. Eventually his entire family immigrated to the quieter land of Laos. His father’s death in 1961 left Cam, the oldest male, to care for his younger siblings. In 1969 Cam left Laos alone in order to embark on “a more personal process,” a journey that was fueled by his intellectual and creative curiosity which brought him to France to study at the l’Ecole des Beaux-Arts de Paris. Over the years France became Cam’s home, writing into his eastern sensibilities variations in the theme of western rationality. A testimony to his achievements as a man and as an artist, Cam was invited by the government to return to Vietnam to teach and exhibit in 1996. We have had the honor and pleasure to have been working with Cam since 1996 and in 1998 we mounted our first solo exhibition of his work in New York City at the Arts of Pacific Asia art fair. We are honored to present this body of work that depicts a man reunited with his past and culture, integrating with the present and evolving with the future of Vietnam. Today Cam is one of Viet Nam’s most revered artists. His work has been shown in Spain, the United States, France, Belgium, Hong Kong, Japan, and Germany and is part of many personal collections world wide. Another wonderful celebration is the marking of January 8, 2015, the 21st year anniversary of Art Director Suzanne Lecht’s move to Hanoi. Compelled to move to Vietnam after seeing a Cathay Pacific in flight magazine about the Hanoi art scene in 1993 and the pioneering work of the “Gang of Five”, I moved to Hanoi in January 1994. At that time the “Gang of Five” with their works of fresh, figurative abstract expressions of the spirit of the Vietnamese were attracting international attention. The fragile, crumbling beauty of Hanoi, in stark contrast to this bold, wild energy and hope for the future touched my heart. From my Tokyo apartment I immediately picked up the phone, called my movers, and said, “Pack me up, I am moving to Hanoi!” It is now 20 years later. I had the very good fortune, the Vietnamese would say, my destiny, to have met Pham Quang Vinh, one of the “Gang of Five” on my very first day in Hanoi. Vinh introduced me to the other artists in his group and I spent my initial years learning the culture of Vietnam through their eyes. In 1994 with the graces and help of my artist friends, I constructed a house consisting of an ethnic minority White Thai house from Mai Chau erected on the top of a base of two floors built to resemble a pagoda. This humble, peaceful dwelling is my home and currently serves as a center for research and exploration into Vietnamese art and functions as the Art Vietnam Salon gallery. I mounted my first exhibition “The Changing Face of Hanoi” in 1997 in Hong Kong and have gone on to exhibit Vietnamese artists in The Netherlands, London, Paris, Rome, New York City, Kansas City, San Francisco, Sante Fe and various cities in the US. In 2002 I opened my first public gallery in a traditional Hanoian tube house at 30 Hang Than. The gallery at 30 Hang Than received guests from all over the world, from Mick Jagger to world presidents and top international collectors. We mounted monthly solo and group exhibitions and participated in international art fairs in Paris, New York City and Miami. In 2007 we moved the gallery to a larger more contemporary space at 7 Nguyen Khac Nhu where we mounted exhibitions monthly of some of the most talented and unique artists working in Vietnam today along with foreign artists whose work had a resonance with Vietnam. As the wheels of fortune turn we moved back in 2011 to our salon style gallery and had a wonderful three years working from this space before moving to our current location at 24 Ly Quoc Su. Emblazoned with an energy and passion to further my work in Vietnam we have an exciting new program of upcoming exhibitions and will also be working on collaborations with galleries in Singapore and Hong Kong. We thank all of our supporters, clients, friends and artists who have supported us over the years and we look forward to seeing all of you at Ly Quoc Su. Suzanne Lecht Art Director Art Vietnam Gallery 24 Ly Quoc Su Hanoi Vietnam
Posted on: Wed, 05 Nov 2014 08:42:49 +0000
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