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Going to extremes: A Place of Psyche, 70cmx70cm oil on canvas, by Nguyen Hung Trinh. |
HCM CITY — The insecurity and moral dilemmas that characterise modern life find abstract, surreal expression in the Time of the Human Being 4 exhibit that opened on Tuesday at the HCM City Fine Arts Association.
The exhibition features 15 of the latest works by Nguyen Hung Trinh who says he is obsessed with human destiny.
The unbounded nature of time and the limited lifetime of human beings is a theme that runs through his paintings.
"I recognise my innermost being through the colours and figures on the canvas," said the Vietnamese contemporary artist.
The image of human being is described rigidly like fossil in the paintings that also seem to deal with the conflict between light and darkness, rigidity and softness, birth and death, lust and austerity.
The artist's implements are the canvas, his fingers, coffee spoon and knife.
For viewers, the journey swings between reality and surrealism, expressionism and abstract form. For the artist they are "an attempt to catch up with something that is not only fragile but also unknown".
The exhibition is said to be a milestone marking 20 years since the artist devoted himself to art. Since 2000 he has organised nine private exhibitions in Viet Nam and foreign countries.
Born in 1954 in Quang Nam Province, Nguyen Hung Trinh started his painting career in HCM City. He belongs to the generation of artists who emerged during the nineties when realism was losing its grip, opening up more avenues of exploration.
Besides organising the Time of the Human Being1, 2 and 3 in many places in Viet Nam, the radical reformer of Vietnamese visual arts has also held exhibitions in Australia, the US and Germany.
His latest works can be seen at the HCM City Fine Arts Association, 128A Pasteur, District 3 HCM City through April 1. — VNS