» THE ODDBALL, THE REBEL, AND THE MAVERICK

Nguyen Art Foundation (NAF) is proud to announce an exhibition of selected works from our collection at The Outpost (TO) in Hanoi, Vietnam, curated by Le Thuan Uyen. The Oddball, The Rebel, and The Maverick underscores the resilience of artists amidst the challenging landscape from the 1980s to the 2000s – a period often defined by a serious lack of art infrastructure and support. Moreover, the exhibition seeks to invite reflection on the dynamics and interactions between art organizations in our current context. As individual artists continue to share resources and push boundaries, we must also consider how organizations can collaborate to support our local art scene. What would happen when two distinct art organizations such as TO and NAF intersect – one curating the other’s collection? What opportunities for mutual learning would arise from such engagement? How could these partnerships enhance the way we see and understand artworks?

From our collection, TO chose to borrow the works of artists who were active and prominent in the Hanoi art movements in the post-Doi Moi period (1980s–2000s). This time frame is considered by observers and researchers as the heydays of Vietnamese contemporary art, marked by the emergence of experimental artists. Their works went beyond the aesthetic and ideological framework taught in the formal institutional system, and challenged social norms. Such artists have been coined as the “avant-garde” of visual art – an art historical term used to refer to artistic articulations that are “ahead of their time”. Though for good reasons, this term cannot fully grasp the connotation of the Vietnam context. For a war-torn Socialist country, who started to take baby steps into the Renovation period, pioneering spirit does not only point to the bold innovations in style, form and subject-matter that challenge the existing artistic and aesthetic traditions. It also means the resilience and honesty of artists, who continue to create despite the fact that their positionality and practice do not fit with the dominant social conventions.

Within the parameters of a private collection, this exhibition only celebrates a humble fragment of a diverse range of unconventional, bold, and pioneering artistic practices that have contributed to the richness and vibrancy of the Hanoi art scene. There, we can see the efforts to push the creative boundaries of “the oddball”, or the criticality of “the rebel”, and last but not least, the eccentric yet raw souls of “the maverick”.

The exhibition presents the artworks of Le Cong Thanh, Vu Dan Tan, Tran Trung Tin, Nguyen Manh Duc, Truong Tan, Nguyen Minh Thanh, Nguyen Van Cuong, and Nguyen Quang Huy, on loan from Nguyen Art Foundation.