Biography
‘Vu Dan Tan’s (b. 1946-2009, Hanoi, Vietnam) conceptual layers, iconographic quotation, non-literalism and critical sub-text opened a new chapter of art history in Vietnam, the artist a pioneer of the Southeast Asian avant-garde as regional artists move on from the teachings of Western modernism…. [his] quizzing of the meaning of art sprang from several sources, one of which his lack of conventional training. Vu, if highly educated, well-travelled, and knowledgable about Asian and European music, art and literature, did not attend art school.’*
Select notable exhibitions include: ‘Made in Asia’, Toulouse, France, 2014; ‘Venus in Vietnam’, Ho Chi Minh City Fine Arts Museum, Vietnam, 2014; ‘Concept, Context, and Contestation’, Bangkok Art and Culture Centre, Bangkok, Thailand, 2013; ‘Graphic works by Vu Dan Tan’ (solo), State Gallery of Fine Arts, Astrakhan, Russia, 2010; ‘Negotiating Home, History and Nation. Two decades of contemporary art in Southeast Asia’, Singapore Art Museum, 2011; ‘Ascending Dragon: Contemporary Vietnamese Artists’, Armory Center for the Arts, Pasadena, LA, USA, 2010; ‘Post Doi Moi: Vietamese Art after 1990’, Singapore Art Museum, 2008; ‘Gap Vietnam’, House of World Cultures, Berlin, Germany, 1999; ‘Lion’s masks and Venus’, Goethe Institute, Hanoi, Vietnam, 1999; 2nd Asia-Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art, Queensland Art Gallery, Brisbane, Australia, 1996.