Ceramic mosaic portrait on lacquer background by artist To Ngoc Trang

(CLO) The exhibition “Dream” by artist To Ngoc Trang (Trang Troc) is taking place at Area 75 - Art & Auction 75 Hang Bo (Hoan Kiem, Hanoi). The exhibition displays 26 ceramic portraits on lacquer background... most of which are portraits of famous faces from religion, politics , science, art to literary icons.

"Dream" is the first solo exhibition of artist To Ngoc Trang, also known as Trang Troc. The exhibition displays 26 ceramic portraits on lacquer background. Most of the portraits are famous faces in many fields, from religion, politics, science , art to literary icons such as: Jesus, Buddha, Margaret Thatcher, Einstein, Lev Tolstoy, Picasso, Bui Xuan Phai, Don Quixote, Chi Pheo, Thi No, Lao Hac, Ba Kien...

Painter To Ngoc Trang (blue shirt) interacts with guests at her solo exhibition.

In it, the artist also painted himself with broken pieces of pottery from his wife’s bowl. This is the first work in the “Dream” series, which also opened a new phase of his creative career.

Artist To Ngoc Trang said: “At the end of 2021, my wife broke a very beautiful bowl and asked me to put it back together. Looking at the pile of broken pieces, I found it strangely similar to myself. I tried to put them together to make my face. And in the end, everyone who came to see recognized that it was Trang Troc.

Seeing this game as fun, I continued to pick up broken pieces of pottery around the house and asked for them everywhere. People were very happy to help clean up their trash. I realized that broken pieces of pottery are durable. In addition, they come in many shapes, blocks, and colors. While traditional paintings have been using long-standing materials such as watercolor, oil, lacquer, and acrylic to express themselves, why don't we use various broken pieces of pottery to combine together, evoking shapes, blocks, and colors to create a feeling?

The material that artist To Ngoc Trang uses in her work is broken ceramics. That is, ceramics in the “waste” form, a material derived from a product that was once complete before being broken.

Different from the art of mosaic or decorative ceramic mosaic in Nguyen Dynasty tomb architecture and in modern urban architecture, To Ngoc Trang's creative language is to use natural broken ceramic pieces, completely without using any machines or mechanical devices to shape the broken pieces according to subjective will.

The public visits the exhibition space.

Commenting on To Ngoc Trang’s exhibition, artist Ly Truc Son shared: “I am not sure about the percentage of people who like To Ngoc Trang’s portraits made in a very unusual style, I like them and quickly get close to them. Sometimes artistic ideas come to artists suddenly like a small accident, an ancient bowl, an old ceramic pot falls and breaks, opening up a bright space.

The fragments become motifs, coming together to form portraits of figures who have become symbols of science, art, religion, politics, or who only appear in literature..."

The exhibition runs until January 19, 2025 at Area 75 - Art & Auction 75 Hang Bo, Hoan Kiem District, Hanoi .

A ceramic portrait on lacquer background by artist To Ngoc Trang.

Painter To Ngoc Trang graduated from the lacquer department of Hanoi University of Industrial Fine Arts. In the early stages of his painting career, he worked as an illustrator at Kim Dong Publishing House and won many major awards for illustration such as the Illustration Award from Street Bank University, USA (2001), the Illustration Award from the World Publishers Association (2002)...

Source: https://www.congluan.vn/ngam-chan-dung-ghep-gom-tren-nen-son-mai-cua-hoa-si-to-ngoc-trang-post328924.html