Nguyen Xuan Anh

Yellow Waterfalls

2021

Painted primarily in oil and encaustic with a cement trowel on wood panel and canvas, his work has been exhibited and collected across the US. In the midst of creating these mobile r...

‘Land of the Sleepwalker 05’ is a large horizontal contemporary lacquer on wood panel “abstract figurative” painting created by Vietnamese artist Nguyen The Hung in 2017. Featuring a palette made of a variety of colors such as brown, red, black, yellow, blue and green accentuated with gold leaf, the painting presents a format that has a faux-air of Guernica revised by Miró. Painted on a dotted ground, two characters walk among a variety of creatures. We are in the land of the sleepwalker after all… Curves are perfectly balanced by straight lines; light browns oppose themselves to blacks and petite fluffy clouds seem to be falling on the ground. Colorful wandering clouds in Hung’s works are inspired by traditional cloud ornaments from Vietnam’s ancient citadels and temples. Those ancient ornaments act like a negative version of clouds wandering throughout the space of the pieces. They link together to create a limbo world, where matters become vague and surreal. Another level lies underneath, hiding deep below the clouds the artist has created realms of consciousness and thoughts. Hung, joyful and relaxed, plays around with his dots. Silver dots, golden dots, together they light up the atmosphere to create a passive aura. Ornamental clouds, or simply just dots, they move from one shape to another, unsettled trying to find a logical order for themselves to fit in therefore challenging viewers’ senses. The order of signs creates spaces of uncertainties and invalidities, where the artist’s stories would be tied together and unfold. Silently, the artist submerges himself into an imaginative valley with no boundaries of shapes, strokes, and of random visual connections. The dreamy artist tries to hold on to his childhood memories, from straw scarecrows, late afternoon birds, handmade kites, boys looking after horses in mountain...

‘Autumn Clouds No1’ is a large “abstract figurative” contemporary lacquer on wood panel painting of vertical format, created by Vietnamese artist Nguyen The Hung in 2017. Featuring a palette made of a variety of colors such as black, red, blue and green accentuated with gold leaf, this unframed painting exudes a surrealistic feel that would have made a Joan Miró proud. Painted on a dotted gold, dark green and black ground, a trapezoidal character is facing us. His head, reminiscent of medieval jesters and painted in yellow and red, has a cubist flair. Colorful clouds seem to be falling down the character’s garment and adorn the upper sections of the piece, while scintillating stars accentuate the rest of the composition. Colorful wandering clouds in Hung’s works are inspired by traditional cloud ornaments from Vietnam’s ancient citadels and temples. Those ancient ornaments act like a negative version of clouds wandering throughout the space of the pieces. They link together to create a limbo world, where matters become vague and surreal. Another level lies underneath, hiding deep below the clouds the artist has created realms of consciousness and thoughts. Hung, joyful and relaxed, plays around with his dots. Silver dots, golden dots, together they light up the atmosphere to create a passive aura. Ornamental clouds, or simply just dots, they move from one shape to another, unsettled trying to find a logical order for themselves to fit in therefore challenging viewers’ senses. The order of signs creates spaces of uncertainties and invalidities, where the artist’s stories would be tied together and unfold. Silently, the artist submerges himself into an imaginative valley with no boundaries of shapes, strokes, and of random visual connections. The dreamy artist tries to hold on to his childhood memories, from straw scarecrows, late afternoon birds, handmade kites, boys looking after horses in mountain...

In 2008, the artist was well into his transition from having used brushes to his new mode, applying the paint using workmen’s cement trowels. He was focused on bold, gestural layering of the paint, representing a temporal sequence where elements are earlier or later in their development. At the same time, there are symbolic suggestions of natural elements; waterfalls, large branches, bold escarpments of rock as well as a crossword puzzle...