平和
和平
평화
ASEAN
22 March 2014
Southeast Asian Painting in Toronto

Southeast Asian Painting in Toronto

Toronto's East Gallery currently has a stunning exhibition of portraits, "Figuratively Speaking", featuring eleven leading artists from Vietnam, Cambodia and Burma.

Don't miss it!

Toronto's East Gallery currently has a stunning exhibition of portraits, "Figuratively Speaking", featuring eleven leading contemporary artists from Vietnam, Cambodia and Burma. Don't miss this great event!

The human image, which is at the center of this exhibition, is perhaps the most powerful of all images. And through this exhibition, we come in contact with people from another world. Their eyes are windows into their souls. Their faces contain a vast range of emotions, especially pain and suffering.

These images remind us that the subjects are people, just like you and me. But they have lived through the impact of tectonic economic, political and cultural changes in their countries.

Living in a rapidly changing society, some artists will take refuge in reflections about their childhood or their country's past, which can sometimes be nostalgic and at other times haunting. Dinh Thi Tham Poong's intricate, vivid and poetic watercolour paintings capture her youthful days growing up as a member of a Vietnamese ethnic minority on the border with China.

Cambodian artist Hour Seyha's evocative paintings of children in the countryside are derived from his own personal experience as a child in a refugee camp in Thailand and working illegally outside his native country as a teenager. His fellow countryman Pen Robit uses an enamel paint drip technique to portray the turbulent inner lives of Cambodians affected by their country’s violent recent history.

Other artists reflect about themselves and their relationship to others. Using a small singular photo as the building block for larger pieces, Cambodian artist Heng Ravuth constructs an aggregated self-portrait which he then attacks aggressively by scraping and burning away at the image he has built of himself.

Oeur Sokuntevy, or Tevy, explores the relationships between the sexes and her role as an independent woman and artist in a changing Cambodia, while Vietnamese artisth Nguyen Minh Than uses the self-portrait as a vehicle to examine the person and universal concepts of identity, connectedness and an evolving spirituality. The exhibition also includes a self-portrait by Ha Tri Hieu, one of the founding fathers of Vietnamese contemporary art.

Lim Khim Katy of Vietnam draws her inspiration from the challenges facing women in modern-day Saigon through her expressionistic, emotive portraits of the urban poor. The paintings of Yan Naing Tun from Burma equally reflect today's society. He uses a monochromatic palette to portray ordinary people at the tea shop, or after work, on the edge of uncertain tomorrows. Winner of 2012 National Dogma portrait competition Ngo Van Sac uses both a wood burning technique, along with carving, painting and collage to capture the unique spirit of aging Vietnamese people as well as young people gathered at the local coffee shop.

The spiritual and dreamlike portraits of Vu Thu Hien from Vietnam are reminiscent of classical Japanese watercolour compositions while Burmese artist Maung Aw paints striking pictures of ethnic minority children in Burma.

In short, this is a powerful and stunning exhibition, which should not be missed!

The East Gallery and contacts

East Gallery
334 Dundas Street West
(across from the AGO)
Gallery Hours: Mon - Sun 9am - 11 pm
Closes Sunday, October 6, 2013

For more information, please contact:

Andrew FitzGerald,
Director, The East Gallery
Tel: 416-705-4331
email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
website: www.theeastgallery.com

Author

John West
Executive Director
Asian Century Institute
www.asiancenturyinstitute.com
Tags: asean, Southeast Asian Painting, burma, myanmar, vietnam, cambodia, the east gallery toronto

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