Nguyen Quang Huy

Born in 1971 in Ha Tay in Vietnam’s north, Nguyen Quang Huy completed his studies at the University of Fine Arts in Hanoi in 1996. He has been participating in artist in residence programs in Germany, Australia, China and the USA, and thus belongs to the first generation of artists who could act independently from the artists’ association and take part in international exhibitions. In the early 1990s, he primarily collaborated with Nguyen Minh Thanh and Nguyen Van Cuong (Triade de Hanoi). His blue, large-scale portraits of women and his video installations are dedicated to the life of women in Vietnam, focussing on the working population. His works have been presented in several solo exhibitions in Vietnam, France and Germany, as well as in group exhibitions in various cities in Asia, the US, Australia and Europe, for instance in the exhibition Paris Hanoi Saigon in the Pavillon des Arts in Paris in 1998, or Gap Vietnam in the Haus der Kulturen der Welt in Berlin in 1999. A number of his works are included in the collection of the Fukuoka Art Museum in Tokyo as well as the World Bank Art Program in Washington, DC.  Nguyen Quang Huy depicts women of his country with a series of paintings of a blue tone, within which is perceived a marked evolution from 2000 to 2009. Investigations of Buddhism and pop art turn towards photorealism, we sense the evolution of style, despite the recurrent theme of feminism. The video acts as a mirror to his paintings, traversing the lives of these unknown mothers, those who built Vietnam. (ifa and Marie Terrieux)