Dumonteil Contemporary - Booth B211
Le Trieu Dien, Old Sound, 153 x 105 cm, 2014, Courtesy of the artist and Dumonteil Contemporary
Dumonteil Contemporary's exhibition project for the 7th edition of Asia Now (2021) is to introduce the public to two artists with radically different universes. Both artists are sharing a traditional technique with a contemporary interpretation and vision of it, while remaining authentic to their cultural roots.
One is Vietnamese - LE Trieu Dien, born in 1943. Like the artists who tell stories of love, ordeal or past glory, Le Trieu Dien recalls moments of happiness and hardships in his life through works depicting the landscapes of the Mekong River Delta. However, the real intention of Le Trieu Dien, seeking its own expression, is to transcend the simple representation of the real in order to reach the abstraction of direct emotions.
The other is Chinese - WENG Jijun, born in 1955. Weng Jijun is today one of the precursors who dares to break the stereotype of lacquer as a craft and decorative art in different aspects by giving it an artistic and contemporary dimension. Weng began to pay more attention to our desire to explore the world of the unknown, using his work to reflect the connection between the macro and micro worlds beyond the prism of science. Weng's mastery of lacquer enabled him to transform traditional “models” and “motifs” into a search for the origin of life and a representation of cosmic forms.