HALF the SKY opening reception, February 29, 2012
HALF the SKY Opening Reception, February 29, 2012
Some visual memories from the opening reception with Burmese artist Nann Nann. She was terrific!!
Nann Nann and Andrew share a laugh at the opening reception
“Half the Sky” kicks of a year of exciting exhibitions
“Half the Sky” group show of female artists
kicks off a year of exciting Asian art exhibitions
January 15, 2012
The East Gallery has been off to a busy start in 2012! Andrew is currently in Vietnam to meet artists and select new works and is soon heading to Cambodia, a country with a very promising contemporary art scene. We will keep you posted!
We have very exciting exhibitions lined up for the next few months.
We will celebrate International Women’s Day in March with “Half the Sky”, a group show with female artists from Vietnam and Burma. (Art Square Gallery, February 28 – March 26, 2012). Burmese artist Nann Nann will be in Toronto for the opening and for several events during the show. Stay tuned for special events during the exhibition!
Nann Nann (Burma), Gold 4
From May 8 to June 4, we will present contemporary Cambodian photography in the “Between Fantasy and Reality” exhibition which is part of Toronto’s Contact Photo Festival. The show will also be at Art Square Gallery.
Vandy Rattana, First High-rise (2008)
Later in June, we will have a big anniversary show in the space where we had our first exhibition in June 2011 – Arta Gallery in the Distillery District.
In July we will present “Burmese Days”, a group show of contemporary Burmese artists. We are very excited that this exhibition will be the first in the East Gallery’s permanent exhibition space: We will move into Art Square gallery in July, just across the street from the Art Gallery of Ontario!
Leyla’s lovely café will remain open. We love the casual atmosphere of the gallery, where you can enjoy art while having a coffee or a glass of wine… We can’t wait to see you all there and have lots of fun and interesting conversations!
The contemporary art scenes of Burma, Cambodia and other countries in Asia have received a lot of media attention lately – here are some articles if you are interested in learning more. We regularly update our facebook and twitter feed with news about Asia’s art world so please ‘like’ us on facebook or follow us on twitter.
Deutsche Welle: Burmese artists walk a thin line between art and politics
ABC News: Beyond Apsara – Contemporary Arts in Cambodia
VOA News: New generation defines Cambodian art
Wall Street Journal: Myanmars reforms take hold and tourists follow (mentions Khin Zaw Latt)
New York Times: New vistas for Burmese artists
If you missed Andrew’s radio interview about how he turned from banker into a gallery owner, here is a link to the interview.
Art In Burma Today: An Interview with Khin Zaw Latt
Art In Burma Today: An Interview with Khin Zaw Latt
Burmese artist Khin Zaw Latt, who came to the East Gallery’s ‘Eye on Burma’ show in Toronto, talks about his work and the contemporary art scene in his isolated home country. The interview was conducted by the East Gallery October 5, 2011.
What inspired you to paint your series of Buddha pictures?
I started paintings Buddhas in 2004. After I graduated from the fine arts university in Yangon 
in 2002 I spent two years in a monastery to study English. There was an art competition for emerging artists in which I wanted to participate. I was always interested in figurative art, not in landscapes. I wanted to paint someone I admire – like Gandhi, for example.
But finally I decided to paint Buddha because I was at the monastery, and used to see Buddhas every day. I am not particularly religious. Buddha is a human being, not God. I did not want to do an ordinary picture, so I carved a stamp out of wood. There is more than one Buddha and their aim, their teaching, is “to cease from evil, to do good”. So I carved a stamp with the writing of this teaching and made a Buddha image just with stamps, not brushes.
That was my first Buddha and I continued to make others. I like monochrome colours, especially blue. I feel it’s very calming. It’s a bit like old black and white movies. When I see monochrome pictures – for me that represents the past.
What is the story behind your ‘Moving Forward’ series?
After 6 years I was bored with the Buddha series. When I feel bored or depressed I used to take the ferry from Yangon to the suburb of Dala. Dala is quite poor. The first time I took the ferry, there were lots of people on the boat. I felt uncomfortable in the crowd. I watched how the people got off the ferry. I thought about their daily life, their routines, their difficult lives. At the same time I saw that the kids were looking back – and that was something beautiful in the crowd.
You won Burma’s national portrait competition this year, with a painting of your daughter. But you also submitted a portrait of Aung San Suu Kyi . Why did you decide to paint her?
Aung San Suu Kyi was under house arrest for a long time and the day she was released (13.11.2010) was the same day my son was born! I was happy that she was released and happy that my son was born. I covered her portrait with stamps of the face of her father, Burma’s national hero Aung San. Young people in Myanmar know Aung San Suu Kyi but they don’t know her father. When I was at school we learned about him but the new generation does not know him. That’s why I wanted to have her father in her portrait. People will recognize the connection between Aung San Suu Kyi and her father.
How did the Burmese authorities react when you submitted the painting?
Normally we have to invite censors before the opening of a show. This time, too. They asked a lot of questions about the portrait. The censors are always concerned about the titles of pictures so I decided to call it ‘Just a portrait’ – suggesting that there is no meaning behind the portrait. So finally they said – “Oh it’s just a portrait, so you can show it.”
How does the approval process for exhibitions work and what gets censored?
Before an exhibition we have to submit artists’ biographies and what we will show to the censorship board. Then they come before the opening and look at every single painting. If they don’t like a painting or a painting’s title we can’t show it. Nudity or anything political is not allowed. Artists make sure they don’t paint anything political. Usually we don’t have many problems.
You were involved in a recent art project that was linked to a movement trying to stop a controversial dam project on the Irrawaddy River. Can you talk about that?
The ‘Save the Irrawaddy’ exhibition was a show with artists and photographers. It was very simple: we just showed how beautiful the Irrawaddy is — to remind the general public how important the river is for people who live there. It became a very famous show because Aung San Suu Kyi came to see it. Many people came because of her. After the show many people said that that the Irrawaddy should be saved. While I was here in Toronto I learned that the government halted the dam project! I am very happy. Many people live from the river – their livelihood depends on the Irrawaddy.
This was not the first time artists have worked for a social cause. We are often involved in charity events. We have organized art shows and poetry readings for AIDS orphans, for example. Sometimes artists go to these orphanages and paint with the children or read poetry. We have also raised money for mental health hospitals.
How often do you have art exhibitions in Burma?
Almost all art activities take place in the capital, Yangon. We have art galleries, art businesses and an art foundation. Artists who want to have exhibitions have to come to Yangon.
We only have 3 or 4 art spaces where we can have exhibitions, one is owned by government, one is an art association that you can rent. Many artists want to have an exhibition but space is limited and we often have to organize shows one year in advance. The art market in Myanmar is very small. But although it’s difficult to sell, everyone wants to show their art.
Who comes to the exhibitions?
Mostly other artists. In Myanmar we have very few local buyers. We mainly sell art to foreigners who live in Myanmar or come here on business.
Who are the local buyers?
People with big businesses, for example people who sell gems. They have big houses and want to put art on the wall. In the past, we did not have a tradition to buy art. It started four or five years ago that local people started buying art. Before, they only had calendars on the wall.
Do ordinary people in Burma appreciate art?
Ordinary people don’t come to exhibitions, even if you invite them or if it’s in the newspaper. They don’t appreciate art. They need art education. I saw that in other countries, young children learn about art, they learn to draw and teachers take them to art exhibitions. But in our country, both children and adults know nothing about art. For them, painting is paintings in temples. They are far removed from the art community.
I am planning to start an art project in the countryside, in a village an hour’s drive from Yangon. I want to build a school made from bamboo. My friends and I will go there on the weekends and teach the children about nature and about art. I hope that when they grow up, some of them will love art, and some of them will love nature.
How big is the art community in Yangon? Do you discuss art trends?
There are about 1000 artists. Not all of them are doing art full time, many have other jobs. Not many artists can live from art – they have other jobs such as design. We don’t discuss art very much. The artists in Myanmar – just like everywhere else – are very self-centered, they don’t care about other people’s opinion. I would love to do art discussions or symposiums.
At art school there are also no discussions about art, we just have to follow the teachers.
How much exposure do artists in Burma have to international art trends ?
In the past five to seven years we have had more exposure. We can get foreign books, can travel outside Myanmar and we also have the Internet. Before, artists used to paint in a very academic, British style but in the last seven to ten years, artists have started to change. They realize that art is not only done in the British way but that there are many different styles, including installations, multimedia art etc. Now you can see all these things, also performance art. But it’s far removed from ordinary people. Very few people see our art.
You have traveled quite a bit in Asia. How has that impacted you?
About 10 years ago I only knew the British way of painting. After I graduated I had the chance to read foreign books and see things on the Internet but still, my style had not changed. But when I traveled and saw other things and saw that international artists can paint whatever they like and have no limits – that encouraged me a lot. My first trip was to Hong Kong. When I came back I felt encouraged to make more contemporary art, art I loved. If people don’t leave the country they worry what people will say. But after having traveled I don’t care if people criticize my paintings. I paint whatever I want.
Your visit to Toronto was your first trip outside Asia. What impressions will you take back to Burma?
I saw many art galleries and wanted to learn about the art here. My favourite place was the Art Gallery of Ontario (AGO). It’s the first time I have seen old masters like Van Gogh and sculptures by artists such as Henry Moore. I have been reading about them in books for a long time but now I was finally able to see them with my own eyes. I spent a lot of time looking at Henry Moore’s sculptures. I could have spent a lot more time at the AGO! The galleries in Yorkville were quite traditional but I loved the Distillery district. I loved to see resin – we don’t have that in Burma. I loved to see different techniques and styles, for example collages.
Click on the link below to read an article about Khin Zaw Latt in Asia Art News
Click on the link below to read about the contemporary art scene in Burma in the New York Times
Eye on Burma
Eye on Burma Opening Reception, September 28th, 2011
Watch the blessing of the exhibition by Buddhist monks and Andrew’s speech:
Watch artist Khin Zaw Latt’s speech:
Some visual memories from the opening night of our ‘Eye on Burma show’ at Art Square Gallery, Toronto.
To see more photos of the opening exhibition, click here to go to the East Gallery’s facebook page.
University of Toronto Buddhism expert Christoph Emmrich gave three introductions in one: ’ Burmese.Theravada.Buddhism’ A fascinating lecture, followed by lively discussions.
Author Karen Connelly read from her books ‘The Lizard Cage’ and ‘Burmese Lessons’ as well as from a collection of poetry about Burma. A very special perspective on Burma, from a great writer.
“It’s nice to finally see an exhibition featuring exclusively Asian art!”
(June 22,2011)
“It’s nice to finally see an exhibition featuring exclusively Asian art!”
This is one of the many enthusiastic comments we got from the visitors of our ‘Vietnam Now!’ show, which ended after 17 days June 19, 2011.
Here are a few other quotes from our guest book:
“Extraordinary!” “Extremely evocative.” “Beautiful art. Exquisite.” “Loved the show – very inspiring!” “Very moving – thank you!” “Amazing!”
From day one, people in Toronto really seemed to connect with the works we had brought in from Vietnam, although the vast majority of our visitors had never been exposed to Asian — let alone Vietnamese — contemporary art. Many spent a long time looking at the paintings, asking many questions. Women seemed to be particularly intrigued by the beautiful works of the two female artists, Dinh Thi Tham Poong and Vu Thu Hien. 
Many visitors were fascinated by Ha Tri Hieu’s work and said it reminded them of Inuit art, which was an interesting thought. Others fell in love with the simplicity and bold colours of Hoang Phuong Vy’s paintings.
We got the sense that people in Toronto are definitely interested in seeing more of Asian contemporary art and felt very encouraged by the positive feedback we received!
The opening reception with Hanoi lacquer artist Nguyen Kim Quang, who had come with his wife, Phuong, and his Montreal-based brother, was a huge success.
The atmosphere was fantastic! Andrew did a great speech about the show and what the East Gallery is all about – scroll down to read the full text!
About 200 people came, a local Vietnamese-language TV crew interviewed the artist, and may of the guests chatted with Kim Quang (with the help of an interpreter!), keen to find out more about the symbolism in his work. His painting ‘Under the moon’ proved to be one of the most popular ones at the exhibition.
Another highlight during the exhibition was our ‘evening of art and literature’ at the gallery, to which we had invited the well-known and very lovely Toronto author Camilla Gibb – who, we learned that night, lives on the same street as us! Her new book, ‘The Beauty of Humanity Movement’, takes place in modern-day Hanoi. For her reading, Camilla chose passages about the Vietnamese art scene – which is not always described in a positive light and led to interesting discussions. We are looking forward to having more events connecting different forms of art as well as different cultures in the future!
Arta Gallery in the Distillery District turned out to be the perfect venue for our first exhibition. Not only is the exhibition space very beautiful and elegant but we also had a steady stream of visitors who were enjoying a summer-day stroll through one of Toronto’s most popular art and entertainment districts. We are very grateful for the support we received from the wonderful ladies at Arta – thank you Fay, Kamelia, Misha and Sylvie!
“VietnamNow!” exhibition. Opening Reception – Thursday, June 2, 2011. Andrew’s speech:
Good evening everyone!
I want to thank all of you for coming out tonight. And on behalf of my wife, Claudia Blume, and myself I want to welcome you to The East Gallery’s first exhibition – “Vietnam Now! – which features five of Vietnam’s leading contemporary artists.
I first became interested in Vietnamese art when I moved to Hanoi 16 years ago. One of the first people I met upon arriving in the country was Claudia. As a partner in this gallery, she is the person who put together our website which, if you don’t mind my saying, looks great, and runs our Facebook, Twitter and Linked-in programs as well as managing media relations. For those who use Facebook and Twitter I encourage you to sign up to The East Gallery as you will find a steady stream of interesting information about the Asian art markets and latest happenings.
During the 3 ½ years we lived in Hanoi, one of our favourite pastimes was to go to art shows and opening receptions, meet up with our artist friends, sit on the tiny wooden benches that were so common then, and discuss art, politics, and life and how to live it. A very passionate group of people. And a very exciting time for us, and for the country as a whole, as it started opening up to the West.
During that time we became friends with Dinh Thi Tham Poong. We fell in love with her work, she even created our wedding invitation in 1998. So I am very happy to be showing her new work here today.
Claudia and I went on to live in Singapore, the Philippines and Hong Kong over the next ten years and during that time we travelled extensively throughout the region. And in each place we travelled to we would drag our daughters through the local art galleries, getting to know the local art scenes. And what we found was that in many of these countries there was an exciting and dynamic contemporary art scene at different stages of development.
Across Asia one finds societies undergoing rapid transformation. What we are most familiar with, what we hear about constantly, is the rapid economic growth that is taking place across the region. But what comes with that economic growth are massive, really tectonic, shifts in the local culture and society. Changing roles of men and women, changing relationships between young and old, between urban and rural populations, between the people and their rulers.
As a result, there is a strong theme running through much of the Asian art work that revolves around the ongoing tension between the slower paced, traditional society that is being left behind and the modern, frenetic and more global society that is taking its place. Keeping in mind that this type of societal transformation in the west played out over 60, 70, 80 years but is now occurring in Asia in the span of one generation. And these tensions and transformations have led to an explosion of creative talent and expression as the Asian artists try to make sense of all this change.
In the art world, up until recently, the path of influence has typically been, with some notable exceptions, from the West to the East. For example, the establishment of the Ecole des Beaux Arts by the French in Vietnam in 1925, brought European painting technique to the Vietnamese art world and, since then, most Vietnamese painters have attended this school thereby significantly altering the Vietnamese artistic trajectory.
But increasingly we are seeing the flow of influence also going the other way, from East to West. For example, we now see a lot more representations of Eastern spirituality, Buddhism, Taoism (eg: Ying and Yang symbol) along with Asian concepts of harmony and balance showing up in Western art.
The international art world has certainly taken notice. There are now art galleries in all the major art capitals of the world – Berlin, New York, London, Tokyo etc. that are exclusively focused on Asian art. Sotheby’s and Christies now have important auctions for Southeast Asian art and Chinese art. There was a report yesterday in the Wall Street Journal that the China art market has become the biggest art market in the world, from an auction point of view, with contemporary art the second biggest component after ceramics.
When we moved back to Toronto one-and-a-half years ago, Claudia and I were surprised to find that there was very little opportunity to view the exciting work from Asia – at best one might be able to see a random Chinese or Indian artist here or there. But it is as if these artists appeared out of nowhere, from a vacuum, as there is no cultural or social background provided to contextualize their work.
So our mission, the mission of the East Gallery, is to bring work from these exciting markets to Toronto. We want to be the gateway to the latest and best in contemporary art in Asia. And at the same time as we exhibit art from different countries in Asia, we will also be holding other events such as Art and Literature evenings, film nights, lectures etc which will help our guests better understand the artists, their vision and the environment from which they sprung.
And we hope you will join us on this journey – at our exhibitions, through the market updates we provide on Twitter, Facebook, our blogs and through our special events.
I also wanted to say a few words about this exhibition and the work we have chosen for it. We wanted to show people in Toronto a range of styles, medium and subject matter to give people a sense of the range of talent in the country.
But there are certain common elements in the work you see in front of you. In the face of massive social and economic changes it is interesting to see in much of this work a certain nostalgia. Ha Tri Hieu with his paintings of rural living, Dinh Thi Tham Poong portraying the ethnic minority lifestyle of her childhood on the border with China and Hoang Phuong Vy’s use of the traditional Vietnamese folk art style in his paintings. Maybe it’s a yearning for a simpler time.
There is also a reaffirmation of Eastern spiritual values in the face of materialism. We see this in the Buddhist symbols of Nguyen Kim Quang, in the ancestor worship shown in Vu Thu Hien’s work, the animist images and the connection with nature in Tham Poong’s work. Trying to identify, emphasize and communicate the essential and timeless over the superficial and transitory.
Overall, in the work in this exhibition, you see an optimistic search for connections with the past, with nature, with spirituality and traditional values.
Please enjoy the show.
A personal look at Vietnam’s contemporary art scene
(May 31, 2011)
From Marx to Market: A Personal Look at Vietnam’s Contemporary Art Scene
By Claudia Blume
The first Vietnamese artist I met was Truong Tan, a 32-year old teacher at Hanoi’s Fine Arts University. It was 1995, almost a decade after Vietnam’s communist government had introduced its Doi Moi reform policy, and young artists were relishing their newly-found freedom, experimenting with new styles and forms of expression. This freedom was not without its limits, however. When we met, Truong Tan’s exhibitions were repeatedly closed by Vietnam’s cultural censors who disapproved of the sexually explicit, homo-erotic nature of the artist’s work.
But despite those setbacks, it was an era of awakening. For decades, artists had mainly produced works of socialist realism, painting revolutionary heroes, propaganda posters or idyllic scenes of life under communism. Because of the long war and Vietnam’s isolation after 1975, artists had been cut off from information about developments in the international art world. Hanoi’s conservative Academy of Fine Arts, which had been founded in 1925 as École Supérieure des Beaux Arts de l’Indochine by the French, Vietnam’s former colonial masters, continued to stifle individualistic artistic expression and creativity even after the country opened up in the late 1980s. But things gradually began to change, not least thanks to teachers like Truong Tan and foreign influences such as our friend Veronika Radulovic, a German artist who taught for years at the Vietnamese Academy of Fine Arts and helped several of her students to lauch international careers. Young artists became more daring and experimental, creating not only paintings but also organizing ad-hoc performance art.
Hanoi’s first private gallery, Salon Natasha, was opened in 1990 by Russian-born Natasha Kraevskaia and her late husband, the internationally acclaimed Vietnamese artist Vu Tan Dan. His unique, imaginative creations were often made from recycled, everyday objects such as cigarette boxes or cans.
Salon Natasha became an almost legendary meeting place – a salon in the true sense of the word – for artists, art lovers and intellectuals, and had an enormous impact on many young Vietnamese artists. We spent many hours drinking rice wine or tea in the small gallery on noisy Hang Bong street, crouched on tiny wooden stools.
A growing number of artists were receiving invitations from galleries around the world. By the mid 1990’s, an international market for the work of a select group of Vietnamese artists emerged, including Hanoi’s ‘Gang of Five’, one of the first groups of young artists that gained international recognition. Works of one of the artists from that group, Ha Tri Hieu, will be shown in our June exhibition.
From its start, Vietnam’s contemporary art scene was very diverse, but there are elements that are common to many works of art, as Natasha told me in 2000. “Vietnamese artists continue to use a national imagery. They use traditional themes that they translate visually in a modern way. Even on semi-abstract, semi-figurative paintings you can still see traditional allusions – the boy on the water buffalo, for example, or the girl in the Ao Dai, Vietnam’s national dress. But these contents are no longer painted in a traditional, but rather in a modern way.”
Ha Tri Hieu’s work with its expressionist depiction of rural life is a classic example, as are Hoang Phuong Vy’s scenes of everyday life. Some artists are influenced by their childhood experiences, such as our friend Dinh Thi Tham Poong, who is of mixed Tai and Muong heritage, two of Vietnam’s 54 ethnic minorities, and grew up in a remote mountainous province. In her beautiful, surreal images, women and men – often clad in the colourful clothes of Vietnam’s ethnic minorities – are merging with their natural surroundings, showing the interdependence of humans and nature. Another friend, Nguyen Minh Thanh, produced a series of beautiful, delicate self-portraits when we met him in the 1990′s.
His friend Nguyen Quang Huy told me once that he was deeply influenced by the Buddhist pagoda in his native village, which was a place of magic and simplicity when he was a child. When I visited him in the 1990s in his tiny studio in Hanoi’s Banana street, he was crouching on the tiled floor, painting simple, abstract shapes on rice paper that resembled sitting Buddhas. He told me that while studying at the University of Fine Art, he remembered how much balance Buddhism had given him, helping him cope with the hectic life of the city, and that he saw his art as a connection between the city and the countryside.
Political and even social commentary is almost completely absent in contemporary Vietnamese art. Natasha Kraevskaia thinks that one of the reasons most artists are not interested in politics is because art had been used as a political tool by the government for decades. Another reason is of course that open criticism of the government is still not possible and that some artists therefore censor themselves.
One of the exceptions is Nguyen Van Cuong, like Tham Poong, Huy and Minh Thanh a former student and friend of Truong Tan. When we first met him, his brush and ink paintings were bristling with aggressive symbols of the new Vietnam, such as Benjamin Franklin’s head, which is on the 100 US$ bill, Karaoke machines, computers or prostitutes. “We need to make critical art for our changing society, as a balance for all this other art work that always tell you ‘this is beautiful’”, he told me. “We need to do necessary art, art you can use for something, something that creates a dialogue with the audience and is not just for the beautiful decoration of your house.”
The unique style of Vietnamese art with its blend of Asian traditions and French influences became increasingly popular around the world. The prices for works of art increased rapidly, although they never skyrocketed as they did in neighbouring China. But by the late 1990s the country’s art market began to experience an economic and creative recession. Increasingly, it was the market that decided about the content and style of some of the art works. With increasing popularity came growing commercialization. A large number of commercial art galleries had sprung up in Vietnam, catering to the growing demand of international art buyers and tourists, and many were run by business people with little knowledge of art. Some painters hired students to copy their best-selling works, while some young artists emulated the work of more successful peers in the hope of sharing their success.
Today, the contemporary art scene in Vietnam has undergone something of a consolidation. The larger and well-established galleries have weathered the economic storm while many unprofessional ones have closed. Young artists are eager to develop their own voice and are experimenting with a variety of artistic expressions such as installations, performances and video art, supported by more innovative exhibition venues such as Hanoi’s Ryllega Gallery. There is increasing international cultural exchange and dialogue. Painters like Truong Tan, Ha Tri Hieu or Dinh Thi Tham Poong , who have kept their integrity, continue to be successful on the international art stage. They were among the first generation of artists who benefited from Vietnam’s new artistic freedoms and have found their own path – away from both Marx and the market.
