RESOURCES
On this page you will find a variety of resources including our newsletter, a directory of art spaces, collections and organisations in Vietnam and some suggested further reading. If there is anything you would like to add or update, please get in touch via email - sophie@sophiesarttour.com
ART FLASH - NEWSLETTER
VIETNAM ART FLASH is a bi-weekly newsletter listing all the best arts and culture events in Vietnam and abroad. We cover art exhibitions, film screenings, artist talks, book launches, concerts, gigs and arts news.
If you would like to receive VIETNAM ART FLASH subscribe below. There are no adverts and your contact will not be used for anything else.
ART SPACES and ORGANISATIONS
Vietnam is home to a thriving independent art scene, where much of the experimentation, collaboration and art education takes place. For those who would like to visit art spaces independently, this is a selection of the best galleries, museums and private collections in Vietnam.
- HANOI -
- HO CHI MINH CITY -
- HUE -
- DALAT & DA NANG -
ART COLLECTIONS AND ARCHIVES
Witness Collection is one of the largest Vietnamese art collections in the world. Witness Collection is also an organisation involved in extensive research into Vietnamese art, art history and conservation.
Established in 1994, ‘Post Vidai’ is a collection of artworks that focuses on the development of Vietnamese contemporary art. Many of the works can be seen at Saigon Domaine (www.saigondomaine.com) HCMC which also houses two galleries with changing exhibitions.
Dogma Collection is one of the world’s largest collections of original Vietnamese propaganda art. Dogma Collection is involved in primary research into Vietnamese art and conservation of Propaganda works on paper.
Asia Art Archive is a dynamic, growing body of material that reflects contemporary artistic practice and developments of Asia within an international context. It includes books and catalogues, audiovisual material, rare periodicals, primary source material, and individual personal archives. For Vietnam related materials click here
The Nguyen Art Foundation is a non profit organisation dedicated to the preservation and promotion of Vietnamese art. Acting as a multi-limbed support structure, it collaborated with San Art and MoT+++ to launch A. Farm, an international art residency. Funded residencies are also provided by the Nguyen Art Foundation each season, with priority given to artists from Vietnam and Southeast Asia.
Salon Saigon houses an important collection of contemporary Vietnamese art including work by Phi Phi Oanh, Dinh Q Le, Võ Trân Châu, Hà Mạnh Thắng, Nguyễn Hoàng Cầm, Nguyễn Phương Linh, Nguyễn Mạnh Hùng amongst others. Salon Saigon houses a reading room containing rare and special edition books on Vietnamese art and heritage.
Đức Minh Gallery and Private Museum
Đức Minh Gallery houses an impressive collection of works by the modern Vietnamese masters. The collection was originally established in Hanoi in the 1930s and has passed through generations of the same family. Asides from the permanent collection, there are is also a small contemporary art gallery.
The ‘spirit of friendship’ is an ongoing historical archive documenting the role and contribution of artist friendships in furthering the development of experimental languages in Vietnam. An online bilingual resource, it is also conceived as an ongoing program platform of exhibitions and events at The Factory Contemporary Arts Centre.
ART ORGANISATIONS
Art Labor is an artist collective based in HCMC, who work in between visual arts, social and life sciences in various public contexts and locales. We do not produce single artwork but develop many-year-long journey during which one inspiration is a seed to cultivate. The seed grows – the inspiration expands and bears into rhizome of projects and artworks.
'Zero Station' is a complex including studio/exhibition space and residency program, which bases in HCMC (Saigon), Vietnam. The main mission of ZeroStation is to enrich and sophisticate the dialogues between the contemporary art and life.
APD Center for Art Patronage and Development
APD Center (Center for Art Patronage and Development) is a social enterprise established in October 2020 with the goal of supporting art creation and promoting socio-cultural development.
Nối Projects are meetings that connect contemporary visual artists with interdisciplinary dialogues and creative people who come from different paths of life to further explore art and culture in Vietnam.
ONLINE MAGAZINES, BLOGS AND NEWSLETTERS
diacritics covers the arts, politics and culture of the Vietnamese at home and in the diaspora.
Art Radar scans the global quality press on and offline to bring you selected topical stories about the taste-changing, news-making and the up-and-coming in Asian contemporary art.
Saigon Apollo Dionysus is a resource that lists the cultural agenda of Saigon as well as interviews with artists , musicians and performers.
Mekong Review is an Asian literary quarterly, publishes book reviews, essays, interviews, profiles, poetry and fiction on and from the region.
Vietnam Artists Resource Group is an online group which shares opportunities for contemporary visual artists and links them to resources that support their practices.
FURTHER READING
Many important publications on Vietnamese art have been produced independently by galleries or arts organisations. You can find them in reading rooms at The Factory Contemporary Arts Centre, San Art and MOT+++ in HCMC and Heritage Space in Hanoi. Below is a small selection of publications available to order online.
Saigon Artbook (SGAB) is a dynamic non-profit arts organisation that publishes and exhibits in Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC), Vietnam.
A detailed overview of Vietnamese visual culture containing the first comprehensive study of artists in South Vietnam between 1954 and 1975.
Artist and military reporter Phạm Thanh Tâm was twenty-two years old in 1954 when he wrote his diary and created his sketches at the battle of Dien Bien Phu during the Franco-Vietnam War (1946-1954)
Drawing on interviews with artists, cultural officers, curators, art critics, and others in Hanoi, Taylor surveys the impact artists have had on Vietnam's intellectual life. The book portrays the complex community of artists, describing their education, the role of the government in the arts, the rise and fall of individual artists, the audience for their work, and how tourism and the international art market have influenced it.
Vietnam 25 Years Documenting a Country (by Catherine Karnow)
Catherine Karnow’s book is a 25-year history of photographing Vietnam's morphing society and landscape, it is a visual diary of how she entered this land of enigma and discovered its twists and turns at every intersection of life.Her photographs reveal the story of a poignant and emotional journey following in the footsteps of her esteemed father, Stanley Karnow, the renowned journalist of the seminal book and award winning documentary Vietnam: A History.
Historic Vietnam by Tim Doling
Tim Doling is a British historian based in Vietnam. His website, Historic Vietnam, is a treasure trove of information about Vietnam, its architecture, history and culture. Tim has authored numerous books, including The Railways and Tramways of Việt Nam, Exploring Huế, Exploring Hồ Chí Minh City and guidebooks on North West and North East Việt Nam. Tim’s particular area of interest is carrying out detailed research on hitherto undocumented historic buildings, with a view to harnessing the heritage value of the urban landscape. www.historicvietnam.com
ADDENDUM
The contemporary arts landscape of Vietnam has gone through many changes over the years, the organisations below are no longer operative but made an impact on the arts scene. This is not a complete list and for those carrying out further research Spirit of Friendship and Asia Art Archive are useful online resources.
A project founded by artists Sandrine Llouquet and Bertrand Peret in 2005, Wonderful District (Atelier Wonderful) promoted contemporary art through exhibitions, concerts and theatre pieces in a small apartment in downtown HCMC. The space was a vital meeting and sharing space for creatives in the city.
Founded in 2005 in HCMC, Mogas Station was a collective of international creators (artists and architects) They presented their video installation, Rokovoko in St. Marks Square for the at the 52nd Venice Biennale with the exhibition Migration Addicts curated by Shanghai-based curator Biljana Ciric.
'Dia Projects' was a contemporary art experiment established in 2010 by artist Richard Streitmatter-Tran to examine the intersections of artistic research, the artist’s practice, and a conduit for conversations.
'Mê phim – passionate about film' was a community based film organisation founded in 2009 in HCMC which programmed independent Vietnamese and international film events.
Gang of Five is a group of Hanoi painters who rose to prominence in the early 1990s in Vietnam. They were the first group to gain international acclaim in post-war economic reform in Vietnam. Gang of Five are known for creating bold works conceptually depicting personal emotion as well as exploring different forms of artistic expressions that departed from the Social Realist tradition in Vietnamese art prevalent until the mid 1980’s.
Blue Space, or Không Gian Xanh in Vietnamese, was founded in 1996 by Mrs. Trần Thị Huỳnh Nga, widow of self taught-artist Trần Trung Tín (1933–2008), as a place for artists to exercise their freedom of expression.
Formed in the early 1990s the Group of Ten were friends who desired to explore and create outside of the restraints of the framework of formal education. As a group they encouraged each other to produce new and boundary pushing works for annual exhibtions.
Six Space
Six Space is an artist-run art space based in the historical centre of Hanoi, Vietnam. With the belief that collaboration and dialogue are keys to contemporary art practices, Six Space seeks to establish connections with artists, designers, curators, writers, musicians, filmmakers, educators, cultural workers, performers, students, and the general audience.
Salon Saigon is a hidden-away space dedicated to contemporary creation and Vietnamese culture, located in a two-floor historical house (belonging to former US Ambassador Henry Cabot Lodge Jr). Salon Saigon is a private collection, reading room and event space. For visitors there is a permanent exhibition of the collection and a vibrant programme of talks, performances and screenings.
The Factory Contemporary Arts Center
The Factory Contemporary Arts Centre is Vietnam’s first purpose built contemporary art space. A modern creative hub and reading room that is more than 1000smq it is a dynamic destination for art, designing innovative programs illustrating the creative criticality of Vietnam today.
Craig Thomas Gallery
Established in 2009, CTG is the natural evolution of its founder’s decade long involvement in the Vietnamese art scene and the relationships developed with artists, curators and collectors during that time. The gallery is focused on supporting the development of young (emerging, early) and mid-career Vietnamese artists and providing them with a platform to present their work to a wider audience.
The Nutshell Saigon
The Nutshell Saigon is home to several vibrant local creative studios, a co-working space & space for rent.
M Ơ Đ Ơ
M Ơ Đ Ơ runs an exciting programme of art exhibitions, performances, film screenings and talks focussing on contemporary art. The space also has a bar serving cocktails made with ethinic minority rice wine.
Then Cafe
Then Cafe provides a unique environment fostering cross-cultural dialogue and exchange of ideas with the local and artistic life of Huế, Central Vietnam.
Go FISH studio
GO FISH studio is an independent gallery, exhibiting modern artwork by professional Vietnamese and international artists. The studio also displays handicrafts which celebrate the designers, local craft skills and materials
Salon Natasha was a meeting place for artists and intellectuals, and a venue for young, experimental, and non-commercial art. Established in 1990 by Natasha (Natalia) Kraevskaia and her husband Vũ Dân Tân, and located in their home, it was the only exhibiting space free from government supervision and open to the new spirit of artistic freedom and innovation. The many exhibitions and art projects curated and supported by Salon played a significant role in the popularisation of the new Vietnamese art in Vietnam and abroad.
'A little blah blah' (albb) is an artists’ initiative that since 2005 has operated as a platform for contemporary art through a wide range of channels including projects, exhibitions & events, screenings, talks, a residency program, internships and an open-access archive of art books & catalogues.
