Exhibition: 16 May – 16 Jun 2014
Art Vietnam Gallery
Lane 66, Number 2, Yen Lac Street
Hanoi, Vietnam
Art Vietnam Gallery welcomes you to a celebration of art, life, music, and the whimsical, playful works of the Gang of Five’s esteemed artist, Ha Tri Hieu.
It was in part Hieu’s work in the early 90′s that opened the door to young artists who wanted to paint their emotions, hopes, and dreams as opposed to the Vietnamese countryside or the Vietnamese war effort. His work is wonderfully naïve, combining hints of his imagination with the reality of what surrounds him.
Hieu’s works have long delighted the viewers with his flights of fancy; paintings of whimsy, lyrical expressions of country singers, cows, along with his self portraits exude the pastoral quality of a rural soul not yet urbanized. His style and palette, more and more prone to expressionism is colorful and bold with abandon.
For this exhibition “Portraits” Hieu has created a series of self portraits, some his signature artist smoking and yet there is a new found freedom and insouciance in the work that taunts the audience with a joyful teasing. Maturity and wisdom have coupled with his boyish naivete to imbue the works with a vision of a life well lived, bowing into contentment.
A series of whiskey boxes, this artist loves his whiskey!, complements the portraits with their humorous depictions of women wine and song and all earthly pleasures.
