... Founded in 2015, the art fair Asia Now has become a key platform for Vietnamese artists in Paris. Over the years, the fair has reflected the diversity and dynamism of the Vietnamese art scene through the presence of both Vietnamese as well as Paris-based, Vietnamese-owned galleries.
For example, Galerie BAO presented works by Trương Công Tùng, evidencing the continued use of traditional lacquer painting for contemporary expression. Since 2020, the artist has been creating a series of small lacquer works entitled As Times Passes Through Shadow. A meditation on the four seasons and the natural elements, the works also include disturbing hidden images like guns and remnants of grenades.
Galerie BAO’s booth also included another contemporary spin on tradition: Nguyễn Duy Mạnh’s Wandering Souls, Lost Spirits series. Here, ceramic vessels were laid out as if for a banquet, but bloodied and cut up like pieces of meat.
“The process of practicing artistic ideas goes hand in hand with my reawakening to the reality of cultural and spiritual life,” said the artist, speaking of the meaning behind these haunting pieces. “In it, the collapse of the value system and the transition to material life occur as an evolution that includes human tragedies.”
This was one of the most attention-grabbing and photographed series of artworks at the fair, and almost immediately sold out.
