This new body of works, while utilizing more multi-faceted geometric forms overlaid with beguiling and mesmerizing pattern, remain classic Tham Poong style metamorphosed into a multifaceted realm of golden mysticism, spirit and movement.

“No” means nothing. “Meaning” means there is something that could be understood in our mind. In the world of thought, the word “no” has almost no value. If we put two words together, we have a word that most people are afraid of: “no meaning” or “meaningless”.

Artist Chinh Le, a devout Zen Buddhist, poet and sculptor, pays tribute to the spirituality of this special night when people come together to celebrate the moment when humans, sky and earth combine in perfect harmony.

One a stranger in his homeland, one a stranger in a land of strangers, Nguyen Cam and Suzanne Lecht are celebrating 20 years of art and life in Vietnam, each possessing a rich memory full of longing for a life lost and a well of happiness for a life regained.

Every silk painting in “Emotion” is accompanied by a bronze statue, both of which were inspired by Chinh Le’s initial plaster works. The statues seemingly profess the physical nature of life while the silk paintings lead one into the spiritual realm, illustrating the interconnectedness between the two.

Viet’s works depict the lavish and hallow state of both urban and rural contemporary life. Utilizing forms ranging from highly visceral dismembered bodies to abstract brush strokes Viet creates emotive and fragmentary compositions reflecting the breaking down of society, the disorientation of the people and general moral decay.

I arrived in Vietnam a weary traveller, but found immediate hospitality among the artists of Hanoi. Meeting many around the Bia Hoi and cafes of the city. To me it was an impression of life in Paris in the 20s, there were friendships, laughter, feuds and fights all in the space of one glorious, hazy Hanoi afternoon.

Memory and nostalgia are infused with essences of the political creating an intoxicating elixir which French born artist, Kristine McCarroll, deftly manipulates throughout her cumulative series ‘The Good Ole Times in the Colonies’. Arriving for the first time in Viet Nam in 1995, in order to examine her country’s historical presence, the artist was extremely moved by the beauty of the landscape and the people.

The autumn season of one’s life brings a heightened intensity to the preciousness of each and every moment. Every breath, every feeling, is punctuated and swollen with the pregnancy of memory. Individual recollections rise and fall, riding the tidal patterns of time’s ephemeral passing. But memory as form remains omnipresent, attuning the senses to what is before one, to the mysteries and holy contradictions which characterize this life.