National Institute of Contemporary Art | The tropical stories of Tuan Vu

Montreal painter Tuan Vu is exhibiting his latest works at the Institut National Art contemporain gallery in Old Montreal until December 5. Hedonistic dreams is a happy mixture of tropical atmosphere and references to mythologies and artists who inspired the painter.

These days, entering the Institut National Contemporary Art gallery makes you want to go to the tropics. There is a warm atmosphere there, a bit like getting off the plane in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, Tuan Vu’s country of origin. Arrived in Quebec at the age of 10, the artist exhibits paintings where the lush vegetation overwhelms you so much that you feel the humidity!

Tuan Vu has always been inspired by his dreams. During his solo at Livart, last year, he explained that he had such intense nightmares in his childhood that he drew, when he woke up, the monsters that had populated them. This colorful exhibition, Hedonistic dreamstherefore takes on an assumed oneirism, the artist joining, here and there, characters from mythology or deriving from the history of art.

The fantastic and allegorical universe of the Flemish painter Hieronimus Bosch (1450-1516) thus underlies the large diptych The Garden of the Earthly Delightswith mention of Adam and Eve, the apple, the lecherous serpent, the fruitful cranes, and allusions to wisdom, old age, sickness, and death.

We liked it Return after swimming, abounding landscape with a touch of the Italian Riviera suggesting a late summer relaxation. A mix between the Asian roots of Tuan Vu and its Western component. And once again, a mythological touch with the boat and the dark characters reminiscent of Charon and the crossing of the Styx. “Often, it is the errors of course while I paint that make the characters appear, says the painter. I explore this more and more, because these errors often contribute to the beauty of the work. »

There is also Odilon Redon in a few paintings by Tuan Vu, those where we find the suspended floral components of the French symbolist painter widely exhibited at the Musée d’Orsay. Tuan Vu incorporates a lot of this softness in his paintings and opts for an evocation of nature which also aims to support biological diversity. “The luxuriance allows me to talk about our time, of urban sprawl, when land is being destroyed everywhere, especially to build condos,” he says. For me, vegetation is something important. »

There is also Caravaggio among Tuan Vu’s inspirations. With its approach of Narcissus mirroring himself in the water, stretched out in the heart of opulent vegetation. Botticelli too, with his Birth of Venus that Tuan Vu reconstructs starting from the myth about the origin of the goddess of love, born from the private parts of Uranus, whom her son Saturn had cut off and thrown into the sea. By translating the legend with his evanescent and delicate style , Tuan Vu evacuates the triviality of the subject and adds a touch of topicality. The work The flood at the birth of Venus indeed evokes climate change, with water rushing into the shell of Venus and causing a deluge.

Obviously, one cannot avoid insisting on the fact of feeling strongly, in Tuan Vu’s painting, the influence of Peter Doig, whose tropical touch has become his signature. Tuan Vu is comfortable with this thematic pairing. “I like this painter,” he said. I’m completely inspired by him, I love his personality, I love his humility. »

Since his solo last year, Tuan Vu continues his experiments and that’s good. He no longer paints only in oils. He also uses India ink, the distemper technique (tempera), adds acrylic or works in successive layers, in filigree or in frank juxtaposition.

“When I’m diapering, I think about what to keep or eliminate,” says Tuan Vu. It all depends on the shape, color and story. Sometimes shapes appear, like birds. I then continue in this direction, in complete freedom. Like when you look at clouds in the sky and see shapes in them…”

Hedonistic dreamsby Tuan Vu, at the National Institute of Contemporary Art gallery