Vu Dan Tan, Born 1946, Vietnam
Vu Dan Tan's approach to art making is that of a craftsman. He is concerned with the process and is continuously experimenting and evolving his talent.
Tan's work is influenced by his surroundings and this has had a particularly strong impact upon the materials he chooses to use in his art making. During the war years and after when more traditional fine art materials were scarce Tan would work on readily available materials like newsprint and bamboo baskets. Now as consumerism has swept across Vietnam, Tan recycles the discarded packaging of the consumer economy and turns it into art. Vu Dan Tan works on both a small and large scale, creating creatures and masks from old cigarette boxes which he cuts and paints, as well as creating life size temple and boat installations made from appliance boxes.
Born in Hanoi in 1946, Vu Dan Tan's art is shaped by childhood memories, State cultural engineering and his deeply inquisitive nature. Tan creates art from the mundane, for the past 10 years he has been transforming discarded symbols of Vietnamese affluence (imported cigarette cartons and Coke cans) into the embodiment of the fantastical creatures that inhabit his imagination. For Tan utilizing discarded materials has been a life-long artistic necessity. His father's publishing and play writing career put his family out of favor with the communist government, and so prohibited Tan from gaining access to the scarce fine art materials which were reserved for approved artists. Themes in Tan's work include: Charlie Chaplin, a childhood hero; Venus, a symbol of femininity whom Tan believes is part of our collective world heritage; and his own imaginary creatures. Tan uses these images to subtly criticize notions of wealth and identity. Tan brings these characters to life by cutting, reshaping and painting boxes and objects from Marlboro
packs to Cadillacs.
Lives and works in Hanoi, Vietnam
Exhibitions
2006
'TANORIGAMI' Art-U room, Tokyo, Japan (solo)
2005
'Out of Context' Huntington Beach Art Center, California, USA
2003
'Subverted Boundaries' Sculpture Square, Singapore
2002
'Vu Dan Tan & Le Hong Thai' Art U, Osaka, Japan
2002
'Other Banks' The Government Art Gallery, Astrakhan, Russia (solo)
2002
'Vu Dan Tan & Nguyen Quang Huy' Atelier Frank & Lee, Singapore (solo)
2001
'Hanoi. Le Cycle des Metamorphoses' Institute Franč“·is d'Architecture, Paris, France
2001'Vietnamese Contemporary Art Exhibition' Tochio City Museum, Niigata, Japan
2001
'Osaka Triennale, the 10th International Contemporary Art Competition'
Osaka ConTemporary Art Center, Osaka, Japan
2001
'La Mer' Exhibition of the Post Art, Pezenas, France
2001
'The 8th Sculpture Triennale (Triennale Kleinplastik)' Fellbach, Germany
2000
'Thanh Sac' (with Le Hong Thai) Salon Natasha, Hanoi, Vietnam
1999
'Kretzer mail' International project and exhibition, Bregenz, Austria
1999
'Gap Vietnam' Haus der Kulturen der Welt, Berlin, Germany
1999
'Rien Car Nation' (with Le Hong Thai) Pacific Bridge, Oakland, CA, USA
(solo)
1999
'Lion's masks and Venus' Goethe Institute, Hanoi, Vietnam (solo)
1998
'Above and Beyond' Pacific Bridge, Oakland, CA, USA
1998
'Plastic Waste' Asia Pacific Artist Solidarity Project, Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok, Thailand
1998
'Spirit of Hanoi' Artist Association of Oulu and BAU-gallery, Helsinki, Finland
1998
'Crosscurrents' touring exhibition in Australia, 10 venues
1997
'River: New Asian Art-A Dialogue in Taipei' Taipei, Taiwan
1997
'Inside' Fringe exhibition in Documenta, Kassel, Germany
1997
'Being minorities' Hong Kong Art Center and Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Hong Kong
1996
Muka Studio and Gallery, Auckland, New Zealand (solo)
1996
'The 2nd Asia-Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art' Queensland Art
Gallery, Brisbane, Australia
1995
'Icon of our time' Salon Natasha, Hanoi, Vietnam
1995
'My favorite characters' Salon Natasha, Hanoi, Vietnam
1995
'Composition: Movement and Immobility' Alliance Franč“·ise, hanoi, Vietnam
1995
'Music' ' Salon Natasha, Hanoi, Vietnam
1994
'Vietnam: a view' Augusta Savage Gallery, Amherst, MA, USA
1994
'Red and Yellow' Salon Natasha, Hanoi, Vietnam
1993
'Stop a la destruction du monde' ASIEM, Paris, France
1993
Augusta Savage Gallery, Amherst, MA, USA (solo)
1992
'Abstract Painting' Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam
1990
Exhibition Hall 'Passagarda' Neauphle le Vieux, France (solo)
1990
The Government Gallery of Fine Art, Penza, former USSR (solo)
1989
'24 gouaches of Vu Dan Tan' Association of Literature and Art, Hanoi, Vietnam (solo)
1988
House of friendship, cinema hall 'Hanoi', Moscow, former USSR (solo)
