Just opened at New Plymouth’s Govett Brewster Gallery is a major survey exhibition of one of Vietnam’s leading - but at home most controversial - artists, Tran Luong .
Entitled Tầm Tã - Soaked in the Long Rain, this large exhibition debuted in Dubai and will travel on to Perth and Guangzhou China.
Born in Hanoi in 1960, Tran Luong has lived through - and responded - to remarkable change. Aged 5, he found himself running from bullets and bombs for seven years as America attacked the north during the Vietnam War.
As a young adult, there was postwar hardship and, after 1986, the effects of a dramatic change in economic direction for communist Vietnam. The country began to enter the international capitalist market, while still maintaining the socialist conditions of the communist state.
Luong studied at the Hanoi University of Fine Arts, becoming part of a famous group of painters known as the 'Gang of Five'. Even then he rejected the social realism expected by the state and then by the late 1990s had rejected painting entirely - turning to performance art and working with communities for social and environmental change.
Throughout, Luong has been a mentor and builder of infrastructure for others. A curator, he co-founded Vietnam's first artist-run space, and founded the Hanoi Contemporary Art Centre. He spoke with Culture 101's Mark Amery.
Tầm Tã - Soaked in the Long Rain is on until February 8.
