Exhibitions

‘White Blank’ by Tran Nu YênKhê – Galerie Quynh

Galerie Quynh

Oct 24 - Dec 09, 2023

^{WB.9B, 2023, cast bronze, oil paint, 51.5 x 101 x 30 cm
All images courtesy Galerie Quynh. Artworks copyright Tran Nu YênKhê}

Galerie Quynh is pleased to present ‘White Blank’ – a highly anticipated exhibition of new works by Paris-based artist Tran Nu YênKhê. Known internationally in film for acting, art direction and costume design, YênKhê has been making art quietly for over three decades, though rarely exhibits her work publicly. In her first solo exhibition at the gallery, new and recent works created in Paris and Ho Chi Minh City are being presented for the first time.
 
In the series of sculptures titled ‘White Blank,’ YênKhê creates fluid forms that provide a source of meditation and relief from the turmoil of the world in which we live. Made in a range of materials from plaster, cast bronze andcomposite, the soft, organic structures are unrecognizable as specific entities yet at the same time, feel familiar. Inspired by a quote from Kandinsky, “White sounds as a silence, a nothing before any beginning,” YênKhê’s sculptures are entirely white – the works only become tangible through the presence of light. They are defined entirely through subtle shadows and highlights; any change in light engenders a transformation of their anatomy.

About the Artist

TRAN NU YÊNKHÊ
Working across sculpture, painting and cinema, Paris-based artist Tran Nu YênKhê creates worlds where light and shadow engage in a subtle dance and tensions between form and material play out. YênKhê’s work doesn’t strive to represent or recreate specific imagery but rather the dynamic, abstract forms elicit a range of emotions and imagined narratives in a poetic language that underscore the complexity and contradictions of human behavior.
 
YênKhê studied at the prestigious École Camondo, a private school of product design and interior architecture in Paris. The artist’s ‘Borderline’ (2018), a striking sculpture made of traditional Vietnamese lacquer, was acquired in 2019 by Musée Guimet in Paris making history as the first contemporary artwork from Southeast Asia to be included in the French National Collections. Alongside her visual art practice, YênKhê has built a distinguishedcareer in film over the last 30 years as the lead actress in ‘Scent of Green Papaya’ (1993), ‘Cyclo’ (1995), and ‘TheVertical Ray of the Sun’ (2000), among others and recently served as Art Director and Costume Designer for ‘TheTaste of Things’ (2023), directed by Tran Anh Hung – winner of the Best Director Award at the 76th Cannes Film Festival.