1965
born in Quang Tri, Vietnam. Lives and works in Dalat, Vietman.

In this series of “Black Paintings” Nguyen Thai Tuan addresses social perceptions.  By using his signature technique of creating an absence of the physical being, the viewer is invited to cast judgement on a situation.  The scenes are set in a neutral backdrop isolating the character within a context, a moment, a time.  Forced to peer into the painted character’s solitary world pushes us into their seclusion within the bigger world around them as well as the very moment that the artist so poignantly captures. The audience is forced to analyze the dress, the stance, the situation and cast opinions or stereotype the characters.  Is the woman on the bus bench wearing a scarf a Khmer Rouge or is she a peasant? Is the man being abducted a felon or are the Police corrupt?  The monotone scenes further camouflage the characters’ identity while at the same time the flowing fabrics, painted so smoothly, lend a comforting familiarity of warm Saigon that draws us into each situation. Director and Curator of San Art, Zoe Butt, states:  Nguyen Thai Tuan is one of Vietnam’s most significant artists of his generation, whose artistic practice is anchored in the symmetry of fullness and absence.  Where are our memories fullest? What triggers/limits our imagination to recall the facts of the past? For Nguyen Thai Tuan, space and its objects, the relationship between body and matter, is of unquestionable import.”