BLUE MEMORY
Paintings by Tran Trong Vu
Arizona State University Art Museum
Nelson Fine Arts Center
February 7 - May 1, 2004
image credit: Tran Trong Vu, Installation from 2002.
Courtesy of the artist.
OPENING RECEPTION
Saturday, February 7, 2004
7-9 p.m.
PUBLIC GALLERY TALK
Friday, February 13, 2004
12 Noon
ROUNDTABLE DISCUSSION
Tuesday, February 24, 2004
7 p.m.
Opening receptions that evening for the exhibitions:
Landscape in the Fireplace: Paintings
by Pedro Alvarez
Personal Doping: Video Installations by Agnieszka Kalinowska
BLUE MEMORY: Paintings by Tran Trong Vu
Tran’s striking paintings of schematic figures on suspended sheets
of plastic explore what it means to be Asian and Vietnamese within the
context of an increasingly westernized global culture. His paintings
are peopled by androgynous Asian figures against a backdrop of the signs
of a modernized Hanoi (like cameras, Western toilets and street signs).
Generic Asian male and female figures are painted on life-size sheets
of plastic; a material found everywhere in the streets of Hanoi. Suspended
from the ceiling, the paintings fill the space and form a labyrinth through
which the viewer must walk. The figures hold cameras to their faces or
are framed by televisions, products associated with contemporary Asia.
Sometimes they are surrounded by slogans that Tran has drawn from banners
in Hanoi or by fragments of his father’s poetry. Tran’s work
explores both the westernization of Vietnamese daily life and the way
Vietnamese culture is viewed by the West. Tran’s work contrasts
markedly with more sanctioned, romanticized paintings by Vietnamese artists.
About the Artist
Tran Trong Vu was born in Hanoi in 1964, the youngest son of Tran Dan,
one of the best known dissident writers of the 1950s. Tran graduated
first in his class at the Hanoi School of Fine Arts in 1987 and in 1989
won a scholarship to study painting at the Ecole Nationale des Beaux-Arts
in Paris. Tran now lives and works in Paris.
Gallery Guide Essay
Click here for complete
gallery guide essay .
Exhibition Tour
After the premiere of the exhibition at the ASU Art Museum, this exhibition
will be available for touring to other institutions. Please visit the
following website for tour information:
http://asuartmuseum.asu.edu/vu/tour.html
Presentation
Organized by Heather Lineberry, BLUE MEMORY: Paintings by TRAN TRONG
VU will be installed in the ASU Art Museum's Nelson Fine Arts Center
location.
Duration
BLUE MEMORY: Paintings by TRAN TRONG VU (February 7 – May
1, 2004) is open at the Nelson Fine Arts Center: Tuesday from 10 a.m.
to 9 p.m. and
Wednesday through Saturday from 10am to 5pm.
Support
The exhibition and related programs are supported in part by Friends
of the ASU Art Museum.
ASU Art Museum Exhibitions
Selected past exhibitions at the ASU Art Museum include:
CUBAN ART FROM THE PERMANENT
COLLECTION
Hung Liu: New Paintings
Contemporary Art from Cuba: Irony and Survival on the Utopian Island
Spectrum: An Idea of History
Cops and Robbers: Drawings by Lucio Muniain
Andy Warhol and the Pop Aesthetic
Face Off: Paintings by Michael Ray Charles
and Jean-Michel Basquiat
For more information contact John Spiak at spiak@asu.edu.
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