They say that Nguyen Dinh Hoang Viet is likely to be the NEXT BIG THING in Vietnamese art so here’s a reprise of some of his affordable $100 pieces for sale at Dong Phong @ 3 Ly Dao Thanh St…..not far from the Metropole and the Press Club.

 

In the early years of this century an excellent little gallery called Suffusive was hidden away in Bao Khanh St and it used to highlight the work of recent young art schoolgraduates. It was a fabulous place to pick up affordable art works before the signatures on them became famous. I still kick myself for not grabbing a handful of ceramic pigs by now exceptionally famous Ha Manh Thang.

For some reason there are now no places in Hanoi that exclusively address the output of young, emerging artists and so we miss out on being able to guess who may be THE NEXT BIG THING.

I recall when one of my very all time favorites, Vuong Van Thao (born 1968) was emerging and his Bum paintings were very BIG THINGS at places like Salon Natasha which also used to search out and highlight those young artists destined to make it BIG. For an overview of those delectably brilliant bums see the latter part of my opinion piece about a small retrospective of his work and during which I couldn’t resist buying an early, affordable canvas.

On the walls at Dong Phong are a couple more of in similar pose at a more than reasonable price of $250 (They come from an ongoing series called Bodies and Dreams)

The same artist’s Living Fossils really made Thao a very BIG THING in private and public collections throughout the world beginning with models for his large sculptural blocks of houses in the old quarter (a series bought by the Singapore Art Museum) and some of these models are delectably sitting waiting for a canny buyer at prices up to $500…which is an increase in value of 100% over a very few years…and if you were one of the purchasers of one at the Bookworm Art Space way back in 2007 you got a real bargain. See more links to Thao’s fossils here.

Particularly delectable are Thao’s new houses that are see through, almost lacy.

I could keep on raving on about Thao’s living fossils because I love them…. especially my section of the Long Bien Bridge and a spaghetti crowned, loudspeaker sprouting light pole similar to this one.

Another artist worth following is Doan Hoang Lam (born 1970). Click onto this Saatchi site and you’ll soon know why.

Lam is very well known for his recent Avatar series and for his use of paint etc on X ray sheets

in the series and his affordable and very delectable Avatars at Dong Phong are worth every cent of the $500 being asked (the same price at Saatchi)

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