Nguyễn Thị Thanh Tuyền biography Born in 1992 in Hanoi, Tuyen graduated from the National University of Art Education in 2015. As a recent art graduate, Tuyen is still trying to find her own artistic voice. Using woodcut on dzo paper, Tuyen focuses on exploring the topic of Hanoi, as a way to visualise the city through her own eyes and to keep the Hanoi memories of her youth from fading away. Tuyen has participated in some exhibitions and won the 1st prize in the ‘National Young Talent’ in 2012, the title ‘Young Talent’ of the Hanoi College of Art in 2013 and the consolation prize of the Hanoi Art Exhibition. works This artist currently has no available work at Manzi works St.Joseph's Cathedral, Hanoi NGUYỄN THỊ THANH TUYỀN 2013 70 x 50 cm woodcut print on dzo paper Enquire works St.Joseph's Cathedral, Hanoi NGUYỄN THỊ THANH TUYỀN 2013 70 x 50 cm woodcut print on dzo paper Enquire works St.Joseph's Cathedral, Hanoi NGUYỄN THỊ THANH TUYỀN 2013 70 x 50 cm woodcut print on dzo paper Enquire related what's going on at Manzi

CONSCIOUSNESS - January 20, 2015 January 12, 2015 Trịnh Cung ‘Consciousness’ featuring Trinh Cung's latest creations with 9 sketches and 7 large size oil paintings will mark the return of one of the most important artists of Saigon before 1975 after more than 20 years long of absence in the local art scene. ‘I haven’t shown my work to public for a long time as I felt depressed with everything I created, so I wrapped them up, locked them in a tube, brought them along with me with the hope to find a heaven, for me and for them. Now at the age of 77, I have realised that my artwork need to be free, they need to be alive and that’s why they are here, at manzi art space today’ - Trinh Cung. By setting up an ambiguous interplay between foreground and background, transforming his canvas into a composition of loose, organic forms, in this series of work, Trinh Cung has created a perpetual motion, candidly confronting themes of identity, sexuality and the fear of loss and abandonment. ARTWORKS GALLERY OPENING NIGHT See more about artist(s)

</3 </3 More Hồi Sóng Hồi Sóng More Birdsong Tiếng hót More on our pathway vol. 4 trên con đường của chúng ta tập 4 More Entrusted Conjectures Định lý bất tín More Then and Now, Hanoi streets in transition Xưa và Nay, đổi thay đường phố Hà Nội More Hanoi 1985 - 2015, In The Years Of Forgetting Hà Nội 1985 - 2015, những năm tháng bị lãng quên More 'Neo-Romanticism' 'Thổn thức mênh mang' More More than Human #1 Bên kia loài người #1 More Arca Noa Con thuyền Noa More no-think không nghĩ More The Four Subjects Bốn đề mục [Thấy hoặc Không thấy] More

Romain Orfeuvre biography Romain is a young architect who graduated in 2007 from the National Architecture School of Toulouse in France. He is specialised in urban and cultural heritage and sustainable development. In 2004, he was commissioned by the city of Toulouse to support the local authorities of Hanoi for the protection of the urban heritage of the 36 guilds streets of Hanoi through surveys, regulations, restoration of houses, temples, pagodas, streets and the building of a heritage centre. Especially fond of Hanoi and its miscellaneous heritage - both tangible and intangible, present nd past - Romain aims to present another view of this mostly hidden heritage through his works. works This artist currently has no available work at Manzi works Hanoi Old Quarter - 36 old streets & guilds - Citadel East Gate neighborhood 19th century ROMAIN ORFEUVRE 2014 80 x 60 cm screen printing on dzo paper Enquire works Cau Go Bridge Landscape, 19th Century ROMAIN ORFEUVRE 2014 80 x 60 cm screen printing on dzo paper Enquire related what's going on at Manzi

Birdsong - December 17, 2023 October 20, 2023 Trần Trung Tín Manzi and Blue Space Gallery are pleased to present an extraordinary exhibition by Trần Trung Tín entitled ‘Birdsong’ on the occasion of the late artist’s 90th birthday anniversary Opening: 06.00 PM Friday 20 October 2023 On display: 11.00 AM - 07.00 PM (Tue - Sun) from 21 Oct until 17 Dec 2023 Venue: Manzi Exhibition Space, 2 ngõ Hàng Bún, Ba Đình, Hanoi Free Entrance Trần Trung Tín (1933 - 2008), a talented man with an exceptional life born into a bizarre epoch, had started painting merely as a way to go through the aftermath of an ideological crisis. Stuck in the extreme disillusionment and suppression, forbidden to speak up his thoughts or write out his opinions, Trần Trung Tín began to draw. In such a strange twist of fate, the used-to-be actor/announcer/film screenwriter then spent the entire last half of his life painting ceaselessly and quietly, and unexpectedly became the most absurd and brilliant phenomenon of Vietnamese art. He painted to release himself from all the suppression, to seek salvation, to break the silence, to not get lost or give up, to hold onto his self, with all its essence and ethos … he painted in a struggle “to overcome the atrocious era we were all living in” ( said by director Tự Huy - a friend of Trần Trung Tín) Perhaps from chaos of all confusion and disappointment, a new strength would blossom; amid the destruction and collapse new construction would arise, as always, though isolated and muted yet absolutely pure and true. The exhibition ‘Birdsong’ at manzi will display over 30 artworks painted on newspaper and photographic paper including both figurative and abstract series. This is the second solo show by Trần Trung Tin in Hanoi (the first one ‘Optimistic Tragedy’ was held ten years ago), naturally it has a sense of home-coming, for most of the displayed works were painted in Hanoi during the years of 1969 - 1973. The period is the peak time of the bombing and airstrike in North Vietnam during the war, and Trần Trung Tín, despite the order to evacuate from the dangerous area, persisted to stay inside the city; then under the bombshelter he painted these works. Coming back here after half of decade, they just like an alternative way the late artist kept his promise to ‘𝑟𝑒𝑡𝑢𝑟𝑛 𝑡𝑜 𝐻𝑎𝑛𝑜𝑖 - 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑐𝑖𝑡𝑦 𝐼 ℎ𝑎𝑣𝑒 𝑙𝑜𝑣𝑒𝑑 𝑚𝑜𝑟𝑒 𝑡ℎ𝑎𝑛 𝑜𝑛𝑐𝑒’ (excerpt from Trần Trung Tín’s telegram to Vietnam Feature Film Studio, after moving back to Saigon in 1975) ARTWORKS GALLERY _____________ ‘Birdsong’ also marks the first time his experimental series of abstraction has been introduced publicly. Unlike the figurative series with the idiomatic symbolism that made the artist well-known internationally: the metaphoric images of the girl, rifle, flower, bird,... unveiling an oppressed reality and post-war traumas in bleak gloomy palettes ; his abstract series in the 70s is likely to be in warmer shade and a more lighthearted spirit. In the tragic darkness of war (literally and metaphorically), Tín kept painting under the dim light of the oil lamp inside his small basement, while the air-raid siren was wailing. Through the energy of colors and freedom of lines, Tin's paintings with an idiosyncratic visual language (unprecedented in his generation, which had always been prevailed by French classical style and Soviet realistic & propaganda art ), silently yet powerfully shine with strange optimism and innocence, as if ‘meditative retreats’ to ‘a self-created visual sanctuary from the war raging outside.’ In addition to the abstract body of works, this exhibition also features some figurative paintings he drew in the years of 1972-1975. Here, with 'The little girl of Hanoi', 'My Cat', 'Orange Venus', 'Hanoi Communal House'... shades and strokes are applied in a completely primitive and pristine style (artist Bùi Xuân Phái appraised Trần Trung Tín as a natural - born master of colors ). The sadness and solitude thus, effortlessly oozed out in a gentle yet haunting & powerful way. Trần Trung Tín, with all of the choices of his life, and his art courageously embraced and preserved what people of his time had been forced to abandon to survive and adapt to the chaotic era. That strange audacious bird, an outsider of his land, an outcast of his time, amazingly is still singing by now, as " Truth cannot be executed / Beauty cannnot be buried…” (*), giving voice to the muted and recalling memories of what once denied, erased by the war and historical turbulence. ____ (*) From a poem Trần Trung Tín wrote in 1964 ============== TRẦN TRUNG TÍN (b.1933, from Ben Tre), joined the Resistance against the French at the age of 12. In 1954, he gathered in Hanoi and was directly recruited into the first course of the Vietnam Film School, then worked as an actor, a screenwriter for some propaganda films ; he was also an announcer for the Voice of Vietnam radio. In 1969 he started drawing. In 1975, he moved to Ho Chi Minh city and lived there until he died in 2008. Trần Trung Tín had his first solo exhibition at the Singapore Art Museum in 2001. He was also the first Vietnamese artist invited to exhibit at the British Museum in London in 2002, then 2007. His works also participated in many international exhibitions in the US, France, England, Thailand, Singapore, Japan... and are included in many large art collections. In 2013, 5 years after his death, his wife - Mrs. Tran Thi Huynh Nga organized a solo exhibition for him at the Vietnam Fine Arts Museum. = = = = = = BLUE SPACE GALLERY was founded in 1996 by Mrs. Trần Thị Huỳnh Nga, first operated in collaboration with the Ho Chi Minh Museum of Fine Arts. Since 1997, with funding from the Ford Foundation, ‘Blue Space’ has continually propelled experimentation in the arts through monthly exhibitions for young artists from a variety of backgrounds, from the North to South and also from outside the country. Many of them today are honored in the art scene: Jun Nguyen Hatsushiba, Nguyễn Minh Thành, Nguyễn Văn Cường, Lê Thừa Tiến, Mai Anh Dũng, Bùi Công Khánh, Ly Hoàng Ly, Nguyễn Thị Châu Giang, Nguyễn Sơn, Nguyễn Thái Tuấn, Bùi Hải Sơn, to name a few. ‘Blue Space’ also promotes international exchanges through conferences, workshops, and art camps focusing on performing art and installation. Since 2007, ‘Blue Space’ has been halting the experimental side of their activities due to Huỳnh Nga’s health. OPENING NIGHT See more about artist(s)

Anastasiia Kuusk biography Born in 1991 in Ukraine, Anastasiia graduated from the National University, Kiev, Ukraine in 2010 with a degree in Interior Design and went on to obtain a Master’s degree in Animation from the Estonian Academy of Arts, Tallinn in 2014. She has lived in Hanoi since 2019 and her artistic practice is based here. She works full-time as a freelance artist and also occasionally teaches illustration. Anastasiia previously worked as a character designer in a game design company before she went freelance. Anastasiia is an illustrator who embraces traditional techniques, using only pencil and watercolor; she loves working in miniature and her work is highly detailed. Anastasiia creates complex whimsical worlds with wit and humour, merging seemingly realistic situations with impossible protagonists. She now works primarily as a children’s book illustrator. Currently she has ten published books in the USA, Germany and Estonia. In 2023, she had first solo exhibition 'Illo Elysium' (Work Room Four, Hanoi) works This artist currently has no available work at Manzi works Hoi-Oi-Oi ANASTASIIA KUUSK 2024 21.5 x 28 cm (incl.frame) color pencil on paper Enquire works Chungking Express ANASTASIIA KUUSK 2024 36 x 28 cm (incl.frame) color pencil on paper Enquire works Thanh nien street / The Youth ANASTASIIA KUUSK 2024 26 x 33 cm (incl.frame) color pencil on paper Enquire related what's going on at Manzi

Nguyễn Thị Hồng Khanh biography Born in 1996, graduated in 2019 from Ho Chi Minh University of Fine Arts (Silk painting major), Nguyen Thi Hong Khanh is one of outstanding young talent among Southern emerging artists. While Intensely lyrical in classical figurative style of Eastern silk painting, Hong Khanh’s artworks have an air of contemporary illustration, with a playful touch of manga & anime art influences. The characters in her paintings, mostly either young ladies or small children, are often placed into a vague fictional surroundings with a glimpse of the familiar boring urban landscapes. These human figures, though seemingly allien like the outsiders yet not lonely, are presented in the most pure configuration, as they are trying to interact with few remained elements of the nature world such as a small honeybee, beetles, a fragile butterfly, blooming flowers, and the sunlight, the dew… Skillful handling the silk material, exquisite taste of vivid color scheme, subtle feminine aesthetic senses, Hong Khanh has been building her own path of art practice, worth expecting in the future. works This artist currently has no available work at Manzi works Green NGUYỄN THỊ HỒNG KHANH 2023 49 x 79 cm watercolor on silk Enquire works S i l e n c e NGUYỄN THỊ HỒNG KHANH 2023 65 x 100 cm watercolor on silk Enquire works Sketch 1st dish NGUYỄN THỊ HỒNG KHANH 2018 21 x 29,7 cm watercolor on paper Enquire works Ms. Diệp NGUYỄN THỊ HỒNG KHANH 2023 42 x 60 cm watercolor on silk Enquire works Still NGUYỄN THỊ HỒNG KHANH 2023 65 x 80 cm watercolor on silk Enquire related what's going on at Manzi

Maritta Nurmi biography Maritta is a Finish artist who had lived in Hanoi from 1993 - 2019. Her 26 years in Vietnam, together with an education in Finland both in natural sciences and visual arts have merged into an alchemist-like metallurgic experimentation in painting. Maritta equally enjoys exploring other genres of art, including ceramic art, wearable art, public art and community based art projects, as well as experiments with different mediums including painting on canvas, wooden or metallic objects, ceramic, oxidation of metal and fashion design, progressing from two dimensional to three dimensional formats. Her shuttling between different realms builds up new ways of expression and it generates vigour. Consequently, regardless of the medium or the imagery, the content in her art mostly stirs up energy and motion. In her works, Maritta is blurring the border between abstract and realist. Her use of ornaments and patterns adds layers of ritual, time and history. She has been showing widely in Asia, Europe and North America. works This artist currently has no available work at Manzi works Couture Adorable de Maritta #2 MARITTA NURMI 2010 130 x 180 cm acrylic, aluminum and fabric on canvas Enquire works Floors & Flora 2 MARITTA NURMI 2020 29,6 x 42 cm acrylic on paper Enquire works Roses on copper MARITTA NURMI 2019 34 x 50 x 5 (H) cm acrylic on copper Enquire works Floors & Flora 3 MARITTA NURMI 2020 29,6 x 42 cm acrylic on paper Enquire works Floors & Flora 1 MARITTA NURMI 2020 29,6 x 42 cm acrylic on paper Enquire works Stripes on copper MARITTA NURMI 2019 34 x 50 x 5(H) cm acrylic on copper Enquire related what's going on at Manzi

Ly Hoàng Ly biography Ly Hoàng Ly is a multidisciplinary artist working across poetry, painting, video, performance art, installation and public art. Ly graduated from the Ho Chi Minh City University of Fine Arts in 1999, received a Fulbright Scholarship in 2011 and earned her MFA at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC), majoring in Sculpture in 2013. She spent a year from 2013 to 2014 interning at the Joan Flasch Artists’ Book Collection, The School of the Art Institute of Chicago (JFABC, SAIC). Ly is the first female visual artist in Vietnam doing performance art and poetry performance. Her installations incorporate a level of performance or activation between subjects and objects that unlock sensual affects in the human-materiality nexus. Ly’s previous works make bodily references to women’s cultural experiences of maternity and ministrations as well as highlight human emotions and our relationship to place and nature. Since 2011, Ly has explored the relationship of freedom and surveillance, inherited trauma, the ephemeral materiality of memory, the dislocation and the importance of community and human connection, the association of the loss of nature and human mortality. Her art raises questions about the general human conditions, the critical states of society, and our shared issues of migration and immigration. It speaks not only on a personal level, but also on a global scale: of (mis)understandings and (mis)placement, of (trans)forming identity and being rootless, of adaptation and acceptance, of division and union, and of being human. Ly Hoàng Ly has exhibited widely in and outside of Vietnam such as ‘The 9th Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art (APT9)’ at Queensland Art Gallery /Gallery of Modern Art, Brisbane, Australia (2018); ‘APT Selection’ at Centro Cultural La Moneda, Santiago, Chile (2019); ‘Blood, Sweat and Tears’ – START 2017 (Saatchi Gallery, London, UK, 2017); ‘Zonas Grises – Grey Zones’ (Museo de Antioquia, Colombia, 2016-2017) In 2017, she open her largest solo exhibition in Vietnam at The Factory Contemporary Arts Centre, Ho Chi Minh City. works This artist currently has no available work at Manzi works Ashes no. 22 LY HOÀNG LY 2017 30 x 22 cm digital print on aluminium Enquire related what's going on at Manzi

Nguyễn Trần Cường biography Widely known and adored for his water-colour works on Vietnamese traditional dzo paper, Cuong was born in 1979 and graduated from the Hanoi University of Industrial Fine Arts, majoring in lacquer painting. The bizarre and childlike images often seen in Cuong’s paintings come from his dreams: a couple caught in an act of love, a man flying off into the sky or a naked woman dancing. By keeping parts of the background blank and using large basic geometrical shapes, simple forms and a muted colour palette, the artist is able to construct not only an impression of an open and tranquil space in his work, but also an aesthetic and style reminiscent of naïve art that sets him apart from the rest. Cuong’s most remarkable exhibitions include: ‘Paper II’, ‘Polygon’, ‘Vietnam – Thailand: Exchanging Art. works This artist currently has no available work at Manzi works Pavilion NGUYỄN TRẦN CƯỜNG 2020 20 x 30 cm watercolor on paper Enquire works Cat #1 NGUYỄN TRẦN CƯỜNG 2022 28 x 37 cm ink & watercolor on paper Enquire works Three cats NGUYỄN TRẦN CƯỜNG 2022 49 x 29 cm ink & watercolor on paper Enquire works Pumpkins NGUYỄN TRẦN CƯỜNG 2020 30 x 20 cm watercolor on paper Enquire works Cat #2 NGUYỄN TRẦN CƯỜNG 2022 28 x 37 cm ink & watercolor on paper Enquire related what's going on at Manzi

No & Meaning - January 8, 2018 December 9, 2017 Nguyễn Minh Thành In collaboration with Art Vietnam Gallery, manzi art space presents 'No & Meaning' - the solo show marking Minh Thanh's return after half a decade. Long known in the art community for his thoughtful, introspective musings of self, Thanh presents his life in all its simplicity and honesty. After 10 years of seclusion living a solitary, meditative life in the hillside of Dalat, Thanh has reduced his art to a simple expression of his happiness. As the artists says, "Before, when the beauty appears, I feel happy. Now, when I am happy, the beauty appears". ARTWORKS GALLERY ARTIST STATEMENT --- "No " means nothing. "Meaning " means there is something that could be understood in our mind. In the world of thought, the word "no" has almost no value. If we put these two words together, we have a word that most people are afraid of: "no meaning" or "meaningless". People only care about meaningful words, something that makes sense....but in the world of beauty, it's different, the beauty is transferred to our eyes by space. The word "no", besides the negative or denial meaning, also means "space". If there is no space, there is truly nothing then. Then we also can say that we can only feel the true beauty when there is nothing happening in our mind. For a period of time, I practiced observing my thoughts and realized that most of them were trash. Then I let them go. They were truly my sorrow and the very thoughts which were meaningless while I misled myself from one thought to another. Certainly while I am writing this down I have to think, thanks for that! Life will be much more beautiful if we only use our thinking when it is truly necessary. Recently in my paintings, I paint whatever I feel like, no subject, no idea, no concept, no idealism... I paint as if I am learning how to paint. Before, when the beauty appears, I feel happy. Now, when I am happy, the beauty appears. The reason for this difference is that my mind was occupied too much by my thoughts. Thinking and ideas are the very things that make our life complicated and also ruin Art. Visual art now is corrupted because of too much thought. I overheard that Friedrich Nietzsche once said: "you have a purpose, but if you are disabled, even if you can reach your purpose, you are still disabled". Our civilization now is disabled, because most people are living by their thoughts and so few people realize that. Meaning belongs to our thoughts, but beauty doesn't, it belongs to our eyes and our hearts. People are magnifying their thoughts bigger and bigger and then they forget their senses. If life becomes meaningless, it will be so terrifying. But if people know how to let go of their thoughts, that frightfulness will be gone. We will have a life as it should be as itself or as it is, with no dilemma of what is so called meaning or meaningless. And that is life, which is full of feeling, full of love and simplicity. Then our wisdom will grow, then people will have enough energy to be able to step forward and reach beyond the limit of time and matter. That is what I see and I wish my paintings will be seen in that way. - Nguyễn Minh Thành - December 2017 OPENING NIGHT See more about artist(s)

Lam - January 11, 2016 December 12, 2015 Lê Quý Tông 'True Blue' - marking Le Quy Tong's return after 7 years - is the result of years of working in silence and marks a clear departure from the artist’s previous interest. Tong last exhibited in 2008, and has since been experimenting with new techniques and themes previously absent from his practice, making each research an inquiry into fine art's most traditional medium - painting. The resulting body of work thus announces more than just a comeback; it marks a revitalizing chapter in Tong's practice and fortifies his position as one of Hanoi’s most dedicated and resilient creative forces. True Blue sees Le Quy Tong experiment with a hybrid of painting, decorated pattern and found imagery. Each of the works takes its starting point from photographic documentations of significant political meetings that influenced the course of history. The images - sourced from historical archives and mass media - have been taken out of their original contexts and appropriated, dissected and reassembled into something new and uncanny, making it difficult to decipher between the make-believe, the manipulated and the genuine. Together, they highlight the generic features of all meetings - big halls filled with hefty chairs, grand tables and elaborate chandeliers; men deep in discussion or signing papers. An air of ceremony lingers even when all content and context are stripped away. Once a photograph found its way onto the artist’s canvas, he employed a number of editing devices such us pixilating, blurring and pattern overlaying. Each of the gloomy, cool and blue-colored finished collages is the accumulation of countless layers of paint, visual motif and imagery, which have been applied, erased, smoothened, scratched and piled on top of each other. Displayed together, they provoke a sense of glamorous nostalgia and contribute to a distinctively elegant style and rhythm, reinforced by a shared perspective, composition and treatment of paint and imagery. As figures and shadows sink and rise, visual cues disappear and become, textures, forms and colors part and merge, recognisable events and times in history are rendered an illusion. But what seems to be specific could allude to any place and any time in any history. Déja vu! What appears before us is familiar to the eyes, yet the mind cannot identify why. Have we seen these imageries before? What do we see when we look at a singular photographic depiction of an event? What about the missing people, voices and actions in history that existed outside the realm of a single frame and evidence? The construction of history and memory, or rather the construction of history and memory through photographic documentation, is called into question, and its limitations are revealed. Is the blurred meant to be forgotten, or hidden? Do the overlays introduce alternative narratives, or sugarcoat darker ones? Does the pixilation highlight individual elements, or obscure something and dismantle the whole? What happens when an image is used in a place and time other than where and when it was intended for? What does this act of displacement do to the final works? Does it inform our knowledge and reinforce our trust in photographic documentation? Or does it lay bare the ability to use it to tell lies, falsify reality and shape our perception with seeming evidence? With his systematic, yet intuitive, ordered but open-ended, labour-intensive methodology, Le Quy Tong presents us with an alternative space to engage with the real and the imagined, the authentic and the fabricated, by erasing the illusive borders that separate them. The blue color palette which connects all the series’ pieces evokes a deeply sad and unsettling atmosphere, which reflects the mood at the basis of the work. The color also stands for loyalty and a commitment to truth – a perfect contrast to the deceptive nature of those concepts as revealed in True Blue. ARTWORKS GALLERY OPENING NIGHT See more about artist(s)