The 1986 policy of Doi Moi or “new change” injected reforms into Vietnam similar to Perestroika in the former Soviet Union.
Ellen Pearlman
Ellen Pearlman is a writer and new media artist who lives between New York and Asia, where she is a PhD candidate at the School of Creative Media, Hong Kong City University.
Posted inArt
The Polyglot Lineage of Vietnamese Propaganda Art
When Ho Chi Minh, the father of current-day Vietnam retreated north to regroup during the French Indochina war of 1946, he was accompanied by a number of artists.
Posted inArt
The Complex Tale of Vietnamese Modernism
Vietnamese contemporary art has received a fair amount of press recently and that’s a good thing. However, most Vietnamese artists who are reviewed either studied abroad or have had the opportunity to travel abroad, or grew up outside of Vietnam before returning home.
Posted inArt
A Tibetan Artist’s Political Pop
HONG KONG — In his new show at Pearl Lam Galleries in Hong Kong, contemporary Tibetan artist Gonkar Gyatso uses traditional Tibetan landscape themes and iconography, but also tchotchkes, bricolage, cartoon bubbles, and stickies, all of which serve as cheery subterfuge for the dire messages he buries under his techniques.
Posted inArt
The Rise and Fall and Rise Again of a Chair by Le Corbusier
Amie Siegel’s three-part installation on view at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, “Provenance,” traces the rehabilitation of ruined Le Corbusier furniture from Chandigarh, India, as upscale appetences for chic global lifestyles.
Posted inArt
Artistic Revelations from Ancient Southeast Asia
With Lost Kingdoms: Hindu-Buddhist Sculpture of Early Southeast Asia, 5th to 8th Century, the Metropolitan Museum of Art once again proves its stature as a world-class museum — not just because of its collections, size, or location, but because it is one of the few institutions in the world that can luxuriate in mounting shows of profound global impact that are not dictated by the whims of mass popularity.
Posted inArt
Blood, Guts, and Splattered Gore: Hermann Nitsch Hits Hong Kong
HONG KONG — Hermann Nitsch, one of the founders of the visceral Viennese “Aktionismus,” or Actionism, of the 1960s, has resurfaced with a retrospective of his work at the CIA (Culture Industries Association) gallery, located in the gritty and remote industrial Kwai Hing neighborhood, as if to counter the glamor and frisson of Art Basel Hong Kong. The inscrutable and pseudonymous gallery directors, Juiz and Mr. Outside, curated the retrospective, a first for the city.
Posted inArt
Art Basel Hong Kong on the Verge (Part 2)
HONG KONG — More than US$1 billion of art was for sale at Art Basel Hong Kong, according to insurer AXA ART. But the fair managed to look beyond sales, and also displayed a number of serious counterweights to the frenzied acquisitive impulse.
Posted inArt
Art Basel Hong Kong on the Verge (Part 1)
HONG KONG — Art Basel Hong Kong, formerly ART HK and brought into the fold of the Art Basel franchise last year by director Magnus Renfrew, is primarily about place, though it thinks it’s about selling art.
Posted inArt
The Sound Of Two Borders Dissolving
HONG KONG — Unlike the Berlin Wall, which began with the division of post-World War II spoils, or the Israeli West Bank barrier, which divides parts of Israel and Palestine, the Shenzhen/Hong Kong fence, or “Frontier Closed Area,” has as much security power as wet tissue paper.
Posted inNews
Transmediale Festival Shuts Down NSA Imitators
Julian Oliver and Danja Vasiliev, two artists participating in Berlin’s Transmediale 2014 (January 29–February 2), had an artwork summarily disabled at the festival last month because the piece uses the same technology as the National Security Agency (NSA) to hijack cell phone information.
Posted inArt
With ‘Ink’ Show, Met Dives Into Contemporary Chinese Art
The Metropolitan Museum of Art’s first full-on foray into the world of contemporary Chinese art, Ink Art: Past As Present In Contemporary China surveys 70 works by 35 artists.