Tran Trong Vu
Tran Trong Vu (b. 1964, Vietnam) was born and raised in Hanoi at the start of the American war. He graduated from the Vietnam University of Fine Art and worked as a professor from 1982 to 1989, after which he left to study in France upon receiving a scholarship from the Ecole Nationale des Beaux-Arts in Paris. Besides violence, famine and poverty, Vu’s family also suffered political injustice. His father, the writer and poet Tran Dan (1926–1997), was publicly denounced due to his radical works calling for freedom of artistic expression. Growing up in an atmosphere of persecution and censorship had a deep impact on Vu, as seen across his art which centers on issues of displacement, memory and language. Employing the styles of Socialist Realism and propaganda art to offer critiques on the social conformity and political upheavals of his homeland, Vu’s works are often tightly interwoven with his personal and family stories.
Vu was the first Vietnamese to be awarded the prestigious Pollock- Krasner Prize (2011-2012) by the Jackson Pollock – Lee Krasner Art Foundation in New York (USA). Some of his recent exhibitions include Tôi và Moi, Paris, France, 2022; Ces années-là, Halle des Chartrons, Bordeaux, France, 2021; The Sonnet In Blue, National Gallery Singapore, Singapore, 2017; Les Mots Qui N’étaient Pas Dits, Fondation Dapper, Paris, France, 2014; l’îe de Gorée and Blue Memory, Arizona State University Art Museum, United States, 2004; Journal der Orte, Künstlerhäuser, Worpswede, Germany, 2000.