Nguyen Art Foundation’s long-term vision for Vietnamese art
By A&M

Quynh Nguyen founded Nguyen Art Foundation in 2018. Based in Ho Chi Minh City, its mission is to preserve and promote art at home and abroad by supporting artists through acquisitions and commissions. Together with Sàn Art and MoT+++, the foundation also runs the international art residency A. Farm for both local and foreign artists to facilitate exchanges of ideas, and offers funded residencies to artists from Vietnam and the rest of Southeast Asia. As part of a long-term plan to develop the Vietnamese art scene, the foundation has partnered with EMASI and the Renaissance International School Saigon. Artworks are exhibited on campus and students are given the opportunity to interact regularly with artists for an immersive art education.

A&M speaks with Quynh to learn about her observations of the Vietnamese art scene and her vision for Nguyen Art Foundation.

You founded the Nguyen Art Foundation under the advisory of Cam Xanh (pseudonym of Thanh Tran Ha), who is an artist and founder of MoT+++. How did the two of you come together, and what motivated you to create the foundation in 2018?
I have been collecting art since 1995 with the first piece that was a portrait of myself by the artist Bui Quang Ngoc, and I started to love art and dabbled in photography by myself. In 2014, after a few years residing in Houston, Texas I decided to open the International Modern Art Gallery to show Vietnamese artists to a new audience in the US. During my time there, I was very much inspired by The Menil Collection which is an art museum founded by John and Dominique de Menil. They have scholarship programmes, publishing programmes, public programmes to attract, educate and inspire diverse audiences, and they also run art pavilions and residences. I wanted the same for Vietnam one day. I met with Thanh Ha in the same year and we shared our thoughts and discussed possibilities. I founded Nguyen Art Foundation in 2018 founded under the advisory of Thanh Ha.

Could you tell us about the team that makes Nguyen Art Foundation work?
The Nguyen Art Foundation is managed by the MoT+++ team. The scope of this collaboration includes advice on acquisitions as well as practical aspects of collection management.

The art collection is constantly growing and the team takes care of documenting, archiving, website and social media management as well as the physical aspects including storage and installation of artworks in various venues.

The collection focuses on artists connected in some way to Vietnam. Could you talk about how you (or the foundation) define Vietnamese art and/or who you identify as a Vietnamese artist?
The collection focuses on artists connected in any way to Vietnam. It refuses to limit artists by any definition of their identity that is restricted to nationality, instead prioritising their practice and artistic concept as defining factors. It collects works from both Vietnamese and foreign artists, enlarging definitions of what is considered “Vietnamese” art, and problematising the term “Vietnamese artist”.

The concept of “Vietnamese artists” is sometimes broadly interpreted to mean artists who are from Vietnam, including those of Vietnamese nationality, overseas Vietnamese artists, foreign artists living and studying in Vietnam, international artists who have friends in Vietnam, artists who created works with Vietnamese materials, and those who have exhibitions and displays in Vietnam.

Could you talk more broadly about the foundation’s acquisition strategy?
We identify the artists by periods of contemporary art development in Vietnam, and acquire works from notable figures. We also look for emerging artists and work with them as a part of our long-term investment.

We are a young organisation and the “wishlist” is long. There are so many established Vietnamese artists we would like to have in the collection, but we don’t forget our mission of giving artists the opportunity to mature and grow so we are always attentive to emerging artists.

We have a dynamic collecting attitude and try to see as much as possible before making acquisition decisions.

A. Farm, the art residency the foundation manages with MoT+++ and San Art, is a great platform for getting in touch with emerging artists from Vietnam and abroad.

The foundation collects in various media – painting, drawing, sculpture, installation, art book, performance, photography and video. Do you face any challenges collecting/storing/displaying any works because of its medium?
Storing and displaying art in tropical climate is always a challenge. We are constantly looking for better equipment, techniques and practices. So far, no major issues have presented themselves. As for displays, we analyse location conditions carefully before installing each artwork.

Could you also talk about the issues that Vietnamese contemporary artists are concerned about, if these can be generalised?
I can’t speak for all Vietnamese contemporary artists but from my understanding, the issues are the ones everyone knows about: lack of funding, lack of audience for contemporary art exhibitions, lack of suitable exhibition spaces, lack of education, as well as government censorship.

Are most Vietnamese artists educated and/or working in Vietnam?
Vietnamese artists have diverse backgrounds. Some are educated in local art schools, Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh for instance, but there are many who have had the opportunity to study abroad in Europe, USA or Australia.

It is important to mention the Overseas Vietnamese (Viet Kieu) who left the country after or during the American War, or were born overseas to these migrants. In the last decades, many of the diasporic artists have returned temporarily or permanently to the country, bringing a new dynamic to the art scene.

How do you decide on what to commission?
Commissioning is a great way of bringing complex artworks to life. We invest in and mentor artists who come to us with strong concepts, show interest in exploring within and outside of their medium of work, and who possess potential yet do not have much opportunity to produce and show artworks. By providing financial support, these ideas become reality. Commissions require a strong relationship between us and the artist.

Could you talk more about A. Farm?
A. Farm is an international art residency conceived by Thanh Tran Ha of MoT+++ and Dinh Q. Le of San Art, with the full support of the Nguyen Art Foundation.

When the foundation was offered an old scent and fragrance production factory, which required only small adaptations to accommodate an artist residence, the partnership was born. The former offices were perfect for bedrooms and the factory area was easily converted into studios. The space is located in District 12 of Ho Chi Minh City, and consists of seven bedrooms, six semi-communal studios, a workshop, an exhibition room, shared living facilities and a large courtyard.

A. Farm offers both funded and self-funded residencies. Three funded artists, with priority being given to applicants from Vietnam and Southeast Asia, stay for a period of 4.5 months. Self-funded residencies of any length are open for application all year round. They are time flexible but we ask artists to come for a minimum of one month. Artists have had success in finding alternative funding sources for their residencies. One of the self-funded spots is currently being taken by the French Institute who selects a French artist to spend 4.5 months at A. Farm.

What happens during the residency?
A. Farm provides individual and group critic sessions, which involve invited curators, artists and other cultural producers. Residences also take part in visits to local arts organisations and artists’ studios and well as having constant access to Sàn Art and MoT+++ teams to discuss their projects.

It is mostly a private space for the residents, except during our open studios or end-of-season celebrations, or occasionally for an event hosted by another local art organisation. A highlight of the calendar is ‘All Animals Are Equal’, a yearly open call to any and all artists working in Saigon. Artists working in any medium, at any point in their career —whether professional or non-professional, young or old, emerging or established— are invited to install up to 3 artworks. A. Farm aims to foster an inclusive and non-hierarchical space where different voices can resonate.

I understand the residency is not only for artists, but also curators, researchers, writers, critics or any type of cultural worker. Who have taken up the residency so far?
Most residents are artists but we have welcomed researchers and writers. It is a matter of having the right fit for the space. A. Farm is located 40 minutes from the city centre, in a very local neighbourhood, so residents need to be seeking independence to focus on their creative endeavours. Funded artists are required to take part in the end-of-season exhibition. Self-funded residents have the option of joining the exhibition.

Sponsored residents so far have been Tram Luong, Kim Duy, Maung Day, John Edmond Smyth, Cian Duggan, Nguyen Duc Phuong, Luca Lum, Latthapon Korkiatarkul, Alisa Chunchue, Tuyen Nguyen, Lem Trrag, Lan Anh Lê, Levi Masuli, Kanich Khajohnsri, Weston Teruya, Nguyen Le Phuong Linh, Aram Han Sifuentes and Roberto Sifuentes.

Self-funded artists have been Ben Valentine, Karen-Thao Nguyen La, Scott Farrand, Scott Anderson, Cora von Zezschwitz and Tilman Hoepfl, Matthew Brannon, Mariana Tubio-Blasio, Natalia Ludmila, Constance Meffre, z1 studio, Tina Thu, Rachel TonThat, Matteo Biella and Edén Barrena.

What is the five-year plan for the foundation?
We hope to establish the first contemporary art institution that opens exhibitions, talks, and exchanges in Vietnam. We want to focus on nurturing our next batch of young Vietnamese artists as well as preserving artworks from the senior generation.

How is the Nguyen Art Foundation funded?
The foundation is privately funded by the Nguyen family.

Will there be fundraising efforts through selling exhibitions, for example?
We started collecting without the thought of selling but sometimes an artwork no longer fits with the collection so we might sell it and use resources to acquire new works.

A. Farm sells artwork during the end-of-season exhibition and the ‘All Animals are Equal’ project. Funded and self-funded artists are offered the opportunity to sell their works via A. Farm. Sales are split between the artist A. Farm and all funds received by A. Farm contribute to operating costs of the residency.

How can the Vietnamese art community or anyone who would like to support the Nguyen Art Foundation’s work do so? What are ways to contribute?
We hope to attract a high number of Vietnamese audience to our art programmes. We will actively produce more publications, research papers and events that we hope people can support by buying work, attending events and otherwise engaging with us.

The Vietnamese art community has been very generous with their time by taking part in the A. Farm critic sessions as well as welcoming residents into their organisations and studios. The purchase of artworks also contributes directly towards the longevity of the project.

Ly Hoang Ly, ‘Honey Honey Honey’ or ‘The Fragments of Trust’, 2016, edition 1/3.

What do you wish to achieve through the foundation’s partnership with EMASI and the Renaissance International School Saigon (Renaissance)? How have teachers and students at these schools received these efforts? What about the artists whose works the school interacts with?
We have art spaces at our campuses at Renaissance and EMASI schools to connect students and the school community with domestically and internationally recognised artists. To further promote art in Vietnam, education plays a very important role. With schools under our umbrella, we want to embed the love for art in young men and young women, by equipping them with knowledge about art and art history, giving them opportunities to interact with artworks, with artists, curators both in Vietnam and from overseas, as well as encouraging them to produce their own artworks and celebrate their achievements.

One of the artists whose work is now installed in one of our EMASI school campus that I want to mention is Ly Hoang Ly with the artwork ‘Mat Mat Mat’, or ‘Honey Honey Honey’. The students love it; the whole community loves it. They admire and play with them every day and recently it attracted a group of around 80 students from the Ho Chi Minh City University of Architecture to visit and interact with the public art. It was an inspiring and meaningful afternoon.

Close-Up of Ly Hoang Ly, ‘Honey Honey Honey’ or ‘The Fragments of Trust’, 2016, edition 1/3, at the EMASI campus.

What developments have been encouraging in the past few years in the Vietnamese art scene, and what more can be done moving forward?
Again, I don’t want to speak for the whole scene. But I believe there are more local collectors who are interested in buying local artworks, which is a good thing. The Vietnamese art market is still young and we need more players in the game to raise Vietnam to be on par with other art markets in the region.

We hope to have more understanding and collaboration from the government and the culture bureau to relax their regulations on art and give more funding to non-governmental art spaces and organisations.

What do you enjoy most about your work? What would you consider a highlight of your efforts to promote Vietnamese art so far, and your most challenging?
I enjoy learning new things every day. Looking back, I am glad I participated in the Houston Fine Art Fair in 2014 and brought artworks from renowned artists such as Dang Xuan Hoa, Thanh Chuong, Pham An Hai, Hong Viet Dung, Ha Tri Hieu and Dinh Quan to the show, introducing these Vietnamese artists to a new audience. That was my turn from being an individual amateur art lover to a more established art collector.

The enduring challenge is to earn the support of our family and friends in our quest to bring the community closer to the art scene.

What do you think will be the key ingredients to making Nguyen Art Foundation a mainstay in the Vietnamese art scene?
We have the most talented and most dedicated team to work together on building a sustainable ecology in the art scene. I feel like we are ahead of the game already.

For more information about the Nguyen Art Foundation, click here.