Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam – Craig Thomas Gallery is pleased to present And Flowers Showered, a solo exhibition of collage and watercolors on do paper by Hanoi-based artist Nguyen The Hung. This is the artist’s first solo exhibition in Ho Chi Minh City. The collection was first shown in Hanoi at Art Vietnam Gallery in July 2011.
Nguyen The Hung’s latest collection takes its title from the Indian guru Osho’s book of discourses on Zen Buddhism titled And the Flowers Showered. The artist was deeply moved by the book and cites the inspiration he received from Osho’s work as propelling him forward in his work on the collection.
Flowers shower throughout Hung’s paintings creating what he calls “ephemeral carpets.” The cut-out flowers are photos of the Sal or Shala flower, from the Sal tree, under which the scriptures say the Lord Buddha was born. Other flowers contain urban and pop culture images cut from fashion and lifestyle magazines. The significance of the flowers here is not only a spiritual one linked to Zen Buddhist philosophy, by which flowers shower for everyone who has attained enlightenment, but they are also symbols of the beauty found in life. For Hung, every one of us is as a flower.
The works of And Flowers Showered reveal the artist’s fascination not only with Zen Buddhism but also with the artistic traditions, styles and mediums of Hung’s own Vietnamese culture and that of greater Asia. These diverse influences include his use of do paper which is a traditional material of the Dao and Nung minority groups of the northern mountainous region of Vietnam from which Hung hails. Hung also cites as inspiration the Hang Trong Tet paintings from the area of Hang Trong and Hang Non streets in Hanoi’s central district and traditional Dong Ho folk woodcut paintings of Vietnam.
Nature is an ever-present theme in Hung’s oeuvre, in its subdued hues of pink, blue, orange and yellow and mountains of lush green. All of his paintings present mountain and rock formations, bird, plants and trees inspired by the ancient traditional landscape paintings of East Asia, as well as motifs taken from the costumes of the Dao and Lo Lo ethnic minorities. The soft shapes and curves of these delicate green configurations are evocative of kimono-like drapes at times worn by ephemeral creatures, at times abandoned and emptied of any physical presence or tangible bodies, as if only the soul of its occupants had lingered on to dissolve into nature.
Hung’s work is a beautiful synthesis of his many influences and sources of inspiration. His paintings are a voyage into our own souls, as if we were observing the world go by from a distance, floating in the air. He invites us into a paradisiacal world populated by beautiful creatures and landscapes.
Nguyen The Hung graduated from the Hanoi Fine Arts University in 2009. He has had solo exhibitions of his work in Hanoi, Hue and now Ho Chi Minh City. He has also taken part in various group exhibitions around the country and has participated in different projects in music, dance, theater and fashion. He lives and works in the small village of Doan Thuong thirty kilometers from Hanoi in Bac Ninh Province.
