Culture / Art Republik

Vietnam Refugee Sees Clearly Producing Phenomenal Art

A Vietnamese ‘boat person’ returns to Vietnam to produce some pieces of art that will surely resonate to apart of every individual. With skill and scars, this artist is an individual to keep an eye on.

Jan 16, 2019 | By LUXUO

Bao. The Crossing IX. Black oil canvas painting. 180x100cm

 

Bảo paints his subconscious. Guided by an understanding of previous events in his childhood. His art is a form of connection to his own experiences. Some that took place at an age when he was not certain of what he was processing and others of how he sees himself now.

 

The Journey Of One Speaks To Many

 

Bao. Dark Landscape I. Black oil painting. 100x80cm. 2018

 

Bảo’s art is presented to his audience in a series of chapters.

Chapter One

Chapter Two

& in progress, Chapter Three

His work is influenced by evoking events that produce even more invigorating pieces of art.

Bảo appropriates and mixes several mediums according to the subject he approaches.

Using cultural and religious symbols of Vietnam (lanterns, incenses, rice cake, old photographs) he mixes many sorts of mediums (drawing, photography, video, sculpture, painting…) and he plays with light and the transparency of various materials (plexiglass, glass, inks) to ‘make visible distance of remembrance’.

 

Bao. Through the window. Plexiglas, inkjet printing. 20cm x 30cm

 

With 30 years in France, Bảo knows art.

At thirty-one years old, he decided to go back to Vietnam, to his roots and began his art production.

 

Bao. Series of portraits Drop. Black oil painting on canvas. 50cm x 50cm

 

Bảo was born in Vietnam just after the war.

At one year old, his parents decided to leave Vietnam by sea. Bảo was among the flow of other Boat People.

At one ~ two years old, he grew accustomed to a refugee camp in Malaysia.

At three years old, his family finally reached France and settled there. Bảo grew up in France.

 

Bao. Jars, Printing on transparent paper, Water.

 

After his bachelor, Bảo graduated from the “Fine Art School of Toulon” nearby the Mediterranean Sea and then from the “Art School of Avignon” (DNAP then DNSEP).

He offers up a path of self-discovery and reflection that is incredibly enticing.

His first exhibition in Vietnam was June 2016 at l’ESPACE, Institute of France in Hanoi. In this exhibition, he presented the first chapter of his work. Chapter One, titled “A travers la mémoire” – “Through memories”. It was about the echoes and traces of his past in Vietnam.

 

Chapter Two of his work, is a pleasantly dark collection. It is dark yet not confronting. You see his depictions of the sea as a perspective from a migrant who has crossed the Mediterranean Sea. Bảo resonates a sense of comfort with the images dark waves as they remain clam and gentle. The piece can relate to most persons and elegantly reveals his own engaging story.

 

 

His next exhibition will take place at Hatch ART PROJECT Gallery in Singapore, July 19th, 2019

For more information please visit, www.baoartworks.com


 
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