Hoang Nam Viet

Hoang Nam Viet paints the friends around him with an affection that only comes with tender familiarity. His earlier works often place his characters in surreal settings and situations, or depicts them front and centre, captured in a candid, uncontrived manner. The emotive blues and golds indicative of what he calls his "shattered summer" are slowly subsiding in his new works, though its remnants, akin to the traces of a forgotten memory, can still be felt. That his updated palette of brilliant blue, a colour often clouded by its associations with sadness, is used to convey the warmth of human connection speaks to a lack of cynicism on the part of the artist: an earnest portrayal without performance.

 

Hoang Nam Viet's latest works experiment with found images, diversifying his portfolio of paintings of friends, colleagues and the customers who frequent his café. Dug up from markets selling war memorabilia, or older issues of international publications such as Life Magazine, these faded photographs picture those whose stories have been or will be lost through the brutal treatment of time. Through his brushstrokes he reimagines their lives, their spirits, even their names - a hopeful act of grasping onto who they may have been.

 

A self-taught artist, Hoang Nam Viet (born 1985, Ho Chi Minh City) has honed his practice across various disciplines. He has participated in comic book workshops and worked in advertising (Saatchi & Saatchi, Vietnam and Ogilvy & Mather, Hakuhodo). He is the founder of Hoang Thi café which has become a popular gathering spot for creatives, and served as the venue for his first solo exhibition, Cuffed in Freedom. Hoang has participated in several group exhibitions in Ho Chi Minh City, including Password 0~1, MoT+++; Lunar Breccia, Galerie Quynh; Hopscotch, Galerie Quynh; Chung, PongDang Gallery; The Primacy of Drawing, Dia Projects; and Out of Nowhere, Sao La. 

 

Hoang Nam Viet lives and works in Ho Chi Minh City.