Artists arm-wrestle with Venus

Venus in Vietnam features sculptures created by Vu Dan Tan and Nguyen Nghia Cuong, two artists from different generations who both have a similar perspective on how women and sexuality are explored in Southeast Asian art, and how these ideas become conduits for bigger themes. The figure of Venus is widely used in the art on display. 

The event has been organised to commemorate the third anniversary of Tan's death on October 14, and is displaying some of his works for the very first time in Vietnam.

Much of this comes from his two series Venus and Fashion which he worked on in the years before his death in 2009. He is widely regarded as being one of the leading figures in Vietnamese contemporary art. 

Tan (1946-2009) became a self-taught artist, and worked as an animator at the cartoon film studio of Vietnam national television during the 70s, and contributing to Cuban television. 

In 1981 he established a private studio which became a rendezvous for Hanoi intellectuals. In 1990 this was reborn as Natasha salon, Hanoi's first private gallery and an artist-run space specialising in contemporary and experimental art. 

Vu Dan Tan

Friends and fellow artists often dropped in to see what Tan was working on, but his finished sculptures, the Venus series, were not exhibited in Vietnam, instead being shown in Germany in 2001, and later in Japan, Holland and Singapore. 

Now they can finally be seen in his homeland, thanks to the efforts of Lenzi, a researcher specialising in the contemporary art of Southeast Asia and a long-term admirer of Tan's art. 

The other artist featured at Venus in Vietnam is Nguyen Nghia Cuong, who also explores the little-explored but historically relevant role played by gender, sexuality and women in Vietnamese visual art since the turn of the century.

Born in 1973, Cuong is a graduate of Vietnam Fine Arts University, and has become known for his ironic approach to contemporary reality which he paints as being dominated by consumerism and brand-culture. 

In his series Beauty High Quality, which is one of the first installments visitors see when they enter the exhibition, he continues his investigation of the intersection of popular culture and advertising with life and society. 

Nguyen Nghia Cuong

The work was made in 2007 from recycled waste materials such as cartons, packages of noodles and cans and labels of coca cola. 

His works were chosen to accompany Tan's by lucky chance. The young artist had applied for a solo exhibition at the Goethe Institute, but organisers found important conceptual and emotional links between the two artists and decided to display their works together, albeit separated into two spaces inside the main hall.

The exhibition Venus in Vietnam is open to the public until October 14.