Nguyen Manh Hung

Nguyen Manh Hung's art is always delivered with a heavy dose of humour and play. As a multi-disciplinary artist, he is equally at ease painting as he is creating large-scale installations or exploring sound art. Growing up in post-war Hanoi with his grandfather and father who once served in the military, Hung has developed a practice of unpacking the dual nature of individualism within a community. He also depicts comically absurd situations arising from the rapid process of urbanization and modernization through images of apartment blocks, military equipment, and vehicles sponsored by the Communist bloc. He playfully juxtaposes symbolisms that are highly contrasted in terms of time periods, materiality, and speed — such treatment has since become the artist's signature style. Nguyen Manh Hung also has a habit of reiterating his subject matters across different mediums: from sketches to paintings to sculptures, and eventually realizing the works into life-size interactive installations.

 

Nguyen Manh Hung has participated in numerous regional and international exhibitions. Notable shows include Asia Young 36, Jeonbuk Museum of Art, Jeonbuk, Korea; All Aboard, Farmers Got Power and One Planet, Galerie Quynh, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam; Mien Meo Mieng/Contemporary Art from Vietnam, Bildmuseet, Umeå University, Umeå, Sweden; 7th Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art, Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art, Brisbane, Australia; Living Together in Paradise, Goethe-Institut, Hanoi, Vietnam; Tam Ta, San Art, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam; Connect: Kunstzene Vietnam, ifa Galleries, Berlin and Stuttgart, Germany; Lim Dim: Young Vietnamese Artists, Stenersenmuseet, Oslo, Norway; transPOP: Korea Vietnam Remix, ARKO Art Center, Seoul, Korea and Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, San Francisco, CA, USA; and Thermocline of Art, New Asian Waves, ZKM Center for Art and Media, Karlsruhe, Germany. Nguyen has held residencies at Musée d'Art Contemporain du Val-de-Marne (MAC/VAL), Vitry-sur-Seine, France; Creative Fusion, Cleveland, Ohio; Asian Cultural Council, New York, NY; and Art Omi International, Ghent, NY.

 

From 2008 to 2011, Nguyen Manh Hung was Art Director of Nha San Studio (now known as Nha San Collective) — the first non-profit artist-led space for contemporary art in Hanoi founded in 1998.

 

Hung currently lives and works in Ho Chi Minh City.