Faces of Vietnam

Contemporary Works from the Collection of 
Stephen Humphreys

Zoom Link: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/89344514476?pwd=QjE2MDA0aEs5bFZITlg2SHlqZ0kwdz09
Passcode: 716086
Hosted by Wendy Gerber '80

Open until Jan. 24, 2021

Stephen Humphreys will lead a tour by Zoom of the Faces of Vietnam exhibition at the International Arts Center of Troy University. The tour will include a selection of works from leading contemporary Vietnamese artists of the post Reform Period in traditional and contemporary media including oil paintings, lacquer, and woodblock prints. It will be an interactive tour in which Humphreys will provide an overview and the remote participants will be able to share comments and questions.

Faces of Vietnam is a collection curated by Stephen Humphreys, an attorney based in Athens, Georgia. His travels through Vietnam allowed him to accumulate an array of artwork primarily rising from the post-Đổi Mới (Reform) era of the 90s. This artwork emerged as Vietnam was struggling to reconstruct after decades of war. Emotions surged high among the population and art became a mechanism to express freely without constraints.

Featured in this exhibition are traditional Vietnamese woodblock prints, gouache on Do paper and mosquito netting, and lacquer works inlaid with eggshell, sand, even human hair, providing the experience of uniquely Vietnamese art forms. Themes range in content from the minority tribeswomen of the remote highlands, to the scene of the bombing of the Long Bien Bridge across the Red River to Hanoi. 

The featured artists incorporate the traditional, while pushing the limits with a modern stroke, all while paying respect to their rich historical and cultural background.

"The Vietnamese believe that the face tells everything about the life and character of the person...they do not pay much attention to what you say but rather look at what you do and how you look. Same for the hands…face and hands tell all." - Stephen Humphreys