BUI HUU HUNG
1957 Born in Hanoi, Vietnam. Graduated from Hanoi Fine Arts University.
Since 1975 Studied lacquer painting with lacquer artists at traditional lacquer workshops.
1986 Set up Nha San Studio in Hanoi.
Member of the Vietnam Fine Arts Association.
Member of the International Association of Lacquer Painters since 1996.
Director of the Nha San Studio and Lacquer Artists' Workshop, Hanoi.
Individual exhibitions
1995 Exhibition of Lacquer Art Works, residence of the Australian Ambassador, Hanoi, Vietnam.
1996 Exhibition of Lacquer Painting, Bell Gallery, Hanoi, Vietnam.
1998 Exhibition at Gallery 27, London, UK.
1999 "A Novel Tradition", Apricot Gallery, Hanoi, Vietnam.
"A Novel Tradition", Plum Blossoms Gallery, Hong Kong and Singapore.
Group exhibitions
1982 Exhibition of Lacquer Painting, Varsava, Poland.
1983 Exhibition Occidental, Sophia, Bulgaria.
1993 "Art Spring", Alliance Francais, Hanoi, Vietnam
1994 "Avant-Garde", Exhibition House, Hanoi, Vietnam.
"Ueber den anfang", exhibition with Veronica Le Hong Tha, Exhibition House, Hanoi, Vietnam.
" A Silent New History", Association of Artists, Ho Chi Minh city, Vietnam.
1995 " My Favorite Character", Salon Gnats, Hanoi, Vietnam.
1996 "Ceramic d'Art", Salon Natasa, Hanoi, Vietnam.
"Media: Lacquer, Size: small", Salon Natasa, Hanoi, Vietnam.
"Lacquer International", Fujiita Art Museum, Tokyo, Japan.
"Black and White", Salon Natasa, Hanoi, Vietnam.
1997 "The Sacred Seasons", exhibition with Nguyen Tu Nghiem at Notices Gallery, Singapore.
"Past - Present", Maison des Arts Europe Asie, Paris, France.
"Give and Take", Galerie L'atelier, Hanoi, Vietnam.
"Nostalgia", exhibition with Thanh Chuong at Metropole, Hanoi, Vietnam.
1998 "With Heart and Soul and Mind", New World Art Center, New York, U.S.A.
1999 "A Novel Traditional" Exhibition, at Apricot Gallery, Hanoi then Blossom Gallery, Singapore
Public collections
· Eastern Fine Arts Museum of
USSP.
· Singapore Art Museum.
· Museum of Sydney.
Coming from a family of skilled antique reproducers, Bui Huu Hung masters the most sophisticated technique of traditional lacquerers ordinarily applied in temples and now transformed into the technique of lacquer painting. He seeks plans with several human figures on very big screens. The figures of men or grass and flowers are meticulously represented, life - like, while the space is flat to generate a sudden opposition between partial details and the empty background. His oriental tendency is thus visible in the way he creates multi-interstitial space and concentrates details in each corner, in his harmony of colours not always glaring, contrasting with microscopic shading.Colours and colours shading in his paintings seem to be inspired by the resonance of colours in the religious architecture of ancient Viet Nam.
Dark and somber colours prevail, which requires a prolonged look to exhaustively appreciate the beauty of things in darkness. Reflected pleochroism provokes dim, indistinct sensations.
He affixed bits of antique furniture viz, some dragon - head engravings, a corner of carved boards with Chinese inscription or parallel scrolls, altars, etc. On his paintings and diminished the harmony of colours to synchronize the flat surface with the relief things. Screen with many panels and embedded screens look like a symbol drawn outside the framework of the plan in easel painting. It helps create an environmental space, and gives an impression both ancient and modern.
His road is profound and long, hardly recognizable through a few works. It is the expression of reflections about the underground veins of inner feelings and the national culture.
