Hoang Nam Viet, “The Playground”
Pencil on paper
2020
29.7x42cm
(unframed)
“In general, I want to say something about humanity”, states Hoang Nam Viet.
And to achieve this humble yet ambitious goal, he draws and paints his friends, relatives, or lover and does so with affection that only comes with tender familiarity.
Depicting scenes that either take place in his tiny studio/apartment or in the hidden arty café he runs on the 1st floor of the same building, Viet´s work is a reflection of his bohemian artist´s diary. It is between the walls of this 1860´s run-down apartment block proudly facing the overbearing neoclassical facade of the State Bank of Vietnam that he captures tirelessly, here and there, an expression, a way of being which will later shift towards dream-like worlds and generate this strange air of melancholy that makes the peculiarity of all his work.
Viet is a self-taught and offbeat artist who, however, evolves with great ease in the meanders of the contemporary Vietnamese art scene in which he rapidly found his niche. With an attitude that might seem out of fashion in an art world fond of concepts and new technologies he succeeds in perpetuating the spirit of the former circles of Vietnamese artists and intellectuals.
Hoang Nam Viet (born 1985, Ho Chi Minh City) has honed his practice across various disciplines. He has participated in comic books workshops, worked in advertising (Saatchi & Saatchi Vietnam and Ogilvy & Mather, Hakuhodo), before deciding to fully devote himself to an artist career. Viet has participated in several group exhibitions in Ho Chi Minh City including Chung (Pongdang Gallery, 2014), Out of Nowhere (Sao La, 2014), Art Walk (numerous venues, 2015), and The Primacy of Drawing (Dia Projects, 2015). He is based in Ho Chi Minh City.
