The work is displayed in Nguyen Van He's Art Barracks art space.

Nguyen Van He's Art Barracks, an art space by contemporary artist Nguyen Van He located in Kim Son village (Thuy Bang commune, Hue city), officially opened its doors to art lovers to enjoy the works on the evening of November 6.

This space is more than 1,300 square meters wide, including the house and factory space. Nguyen Van He used 4 materials to create it, including aluminum panels, iron poles, sesame-grained corrugated iron and American plywood.

At the opening of this space, Nguyen Van He introduced to the art-loving public dozens of works from installations, sculptures, paintings and sketches from 2014 to present.

Notable among them are the series of works on the themes of “Arranging Airplanes” and “Games”. These are works conceived from the memories of an artist born and raised in the Hoa My war zone. When folding paper airplanes for his children, the author suddenly remembered his childhood – where simple games were mixed with physical and mental pain caused by post-war digging and mine-sweeping to make a living. With perseverance, Nguyen Van He collected every fragment, every pain left on this tragic land to turn them into the soul, into material for his works.

There, viewers can also see plywood panels from the war that Summer has sanded, cut and shaped into folds like clumsy sheets of paper, creating a new painting language in three-dimensional space. The traces of war seem to be condensed in each streak of red paint, the golden lines under the brown paint, the metallic shine from silver or the mottled color patches of black paint, like the smell of machine oil hidden in each grain of military wood. Through that, the artist conveys a message: Along with the physical losses of war is the permanent loss of an innocent childhood.

A large audience of art lovers come to Nguyen Van He's Art Barracks art space.

The theme of family is one of the hallmarks and highlights in the artistic practice of artist Nguyen Van He that has been well received by the public in this exhibition. A series of works painted by him from 2016 to 2022 revolve around his wife and two beloved children. These are the sincere moments and emotions of family life. There, viewers will slow down when witnessing the portraits of the children with simple beauty, but full of the father's love for his family; the portrait of his wife brings a sense of closeness, honoring and cherishing the beauty of the most important woman.

Nguyen Van He believes that, for him, a house is not only a place to live but also an artistic space, where he cultivates and expresses his love for his wife and children through each drawing, creating a simple and affectionate home.

Nguyen Van He (43 years old), graduated from Hue University of Arts, is a contemporary artist. Born and raised in the post-war period, he has a deep interest in memories and remnants of wartime and always questions the emotions and thoughts of the next generation about the cycle of conflicts and wars. With this theme, his practice ranges from painting, sculpture, performance to installation; he persistently collects fragments and scrap from military bases or local ruins.

From 2009 to 2013, he regularly participated in experiments with leading artists in Hue, Ho Chi Minh City, Hanoi , and expanded his practice with international artists coming to Vietnam or when he had the opportunity to go abroad. For him, creating in many art forms and materials is a journey, where he seeks the best way to express his ideas.

N. MINH