Founded in 2003, Galerie Quynh is Ho Chi Minh City’s reference space for contemporary art. As the gallery is celebrating its 21st anniversary, we had the opportunity to talk to Quynh Pham, co-founder and director of Galerie Quynh. The following features excerpts from our conversation.
What was the artistic climate in Vietnam like when you first opened Galerie Quynh?
“When we opened the physical space in December 2003, there were other galleries on the scene already but most of these galleries seemed more motivated by the commercial viability of artworks than supporting artists and encouraging creative experimentation.
After Vietnam introduced the Doi Moi reforms, and because it had been closed for so long, there was an influx of visitors when Vietnam opened to tourism.
A lot of the people who were coming into this country were enamored of the paintings of water buffalo, lotus flowers, pretty street scenes and such. I felt that many galleries that existed when I first opened my space were kind of perpetuating a certain stereotype about Vietnamese art.
When I first came back to Vietnam in late 1997, I didn’t know anyone. I didn’t speak Vietnamese at the time, and I was told that the best place to meet Vietnamese artists was at Hội Mỹ Thuật (the Fine Arts Association). There, I met some really incredible Vietnamese artists who were making powerful work without a water buffalo in sight."
"The very first artist I met was Nguyen Thanh Binh. He was making minimal, elegant paintings with drip backgrounds. He had really good English. He was so kind and generous, he introduced me to his friends, and a group of abstract artists, older artists.
One of the first abstract artists I met was Nguyen Trung, who was born in 1940. I regard him as one of the leaders of abstraction in Vietnam.
These artists opened their networks. They introduced me to Tran Van Thao, an artist we’re still working with. We've followed the trajectory of his practice for over 20 years.
I was so inspired by the practices of artists like Tran Van Thao, Do Hoang Tuong, Nguyen Tan Cuong because what they were doing was making art in the abstract genre that wasn’t appreciated and acknowledged here back in the late 90s/early 2000s.
These artists pushed through and I found their resilience so inspiring. And I loved the work, too. When I looked at those canvases, I could feel that they represented spaces of freedom.
I also found it quite interesting that these older artists told me that even during the war, when the bombs were dropping, they were still very active. They could still exhibit at cafés, but also privately, and they had access to international art journals.
It was frustrating to see people coming from the West looking at Vietnamese abstract art in the 90s and 2000s through a Eurocentric lens and dismiss the art as another versions of what they know. Vietnamese artists discovered abstraction through experimentation; it’s a genre that is connected to Eastern philosophy.
I received my education overseas. I’m Vietnamese, I was born in Da Nang, but I left at the end of the war, and I ended up in San Diego. My academic training was at UC San Diego, in Art Criticism, Art History and Art Theory.
My academic training comes from the West but I arrived in Vietnam with an open mind and heart and I am not trying to impose outside gallery models here. We have always had our ears to the ground listening to our community to understand what is needed to support artists and creative practice. We’re really trying to build from the ground up.
It’s something so meaningful to me when I tell you about my history: to have left this country, to come back and to rebuild in the cultural sector. It’s something I can’t even explain to you. The community, the stories, the artists…, everything nourishes me."
Since Galerie Quynh has opened, Vietnam has undergone tremendous socio-economic development. How has this impacted the artistic climate in Vietnam and the artistic community you host?
“I’m now working with some of the children of the older artists I met when I came back to Vietnam. It’s incredible. These young artists didn't go through the hardships their parents experienced. They have more access to art and information with the internet, visiting curators, writers, musicians and artists, all sorts of creative people coming to Vietnam.
This has also influenced their practices. They’re not necessarily just making paintings, like their parents did. They’re much more aware of different disciplines and mediums to experiment with."
"You can see from our current show, 21 YEARS OF GALERIE QUYNH, that these artists are doing everything. Look at Nguyen Phuong Linh, she’s using salt – an organic, ephemeral material. She created this work originally for her first solo exhibition with us as part of our Emerging Artist Program in 2009."
"We do everything from A to Z. Our amazing team designs our own frames, the crates… we even built a climate-controlled storeroom ourselves. I actually flew to Singapore and met with the conservators at the National Gallery there to understand storage systems."
"People from important international museums who have come here have remarked that our shows are produced at the highest standard. There’s definitely truth to that because these shows sometimes travel to museums overseas."
"We are a hybrid establishment – part gallery, part institution. We work like a museum in providing free public programs for our community to look, to learn, to build visual literacy. And the gallery side drives the sales, because we need to finance all that not-for-profit work.
The gallery is growing and our projects are getting more and more ambitious. We just keep raising that bar higher and higher. It’s been 21 years and there’s a phrase I seem to be repeating: we are literally just getting started. It’s especially relevant at this particular moment; this country has momentum.
We are working with artists now who were born in the 90s. They are the creatives driving this country. This generation is so exciting. I’m constantly learning from the artists and from the people who pass through our doors."
What does the future look like for the Vietnamese contemporary art communtiy?
"We’re continuing to build collectorship in Vietnam. 21 years on, there are not enough collectors of contemporary art here. We wouldn’t be able to sustain our operations through just a local market, which is why we also travel quite a bit to promote the artists overseas.
There’s an exciting new initiative I would like to kickstart in the coming months: a Young Collectors Circle. I’ve identified people already who we think could be part of this, and I think Vietecetera’s readers could be too.
I’ve been having great discussions with professionals, some who are Ivy League educated, that are coming back to Vietnam, and building their own businesses. We really want to bring this community together.
The Young Collectors Circle will comprise individuals who want to enter the art world – which can be intimidating to the uninitiated – and build a meaningful collection.
We’ll organize talks with collectors, artists, curators and other inspiring people in the art world; we’ll do studio visits and also international travel so the members can see Vietnamese art on the global stage as well as fantastic art around the world. We’ll visit private collections, go on private tours of museums and much more.
Travel won’t just be about art but it’s about culture, too. I’m especially excited about an upcoming trip to Tallinn, Estonia for the solo exhibition of Will Thurman that we are organizing in collaboration with Temnikova & Kasela Gallery. We’ll find time to take the collectors to the forest to forage for mushrooms. The Young Collectors Circle will be fun, too!"
"Vietcetera’s readers should know that the gallery works with artists at various stages in their careers. The artworks are priced based on their profile, the medium, the size, market demand, etc. We have works starting from a few hundred dollars to six figures. We do feel like there’s something here for anyone who wants to start collecting.
I know for a fact that in the last 21 years, most of the art we’ve sold has left the country. Another reason to encourage this younger demographic (25-45) of collectors is that we want to keep great art in this nation for posterity. Wealthy people here have been buying historical, modern Vietnamese art from major auction houses like Sotheby’s, Christie’s, Phillip’s for seven figures. They’re bringing Vietnamese art back into this country.
We need to find the visionaries who know that the art we’re showing is going to be historical. The art reflects the zeitgeist. It would be incredible to have museums here dedicated to contemporary art in the future so the art can be appreciated by all.
I would love to see more people setting up different art platforms, because there are so many amazing local Vietnamese artists and we can’t work with all of them. It will take an army of us to lift up the cultural scene here.
In the future I would like to showcase more art from outside Vietnam because it’s not easy for the average Vietnamese to just jump on a plane and go to Singapore and see the National Gallery or go to Hong Kong to see M+.
Let’s bring in really great art to be in dialogue with Vietnamese art. People will see that Vietnamese art holds its own with the best art in the world."
To get in touch, contact Galerie Quynh on Facebook, Instagram, by email at info@galeriequynh.com, or call +84 28 3822 7218