Contemporary Art

Due to a last-minute cancellation, we have an available booking for the
following exhibition.  Please call/e-mail me (contact info below) for
further information.  Thanks!

Nickie
_____________

EXHIBIITION:  An Ocean Apart:  Contemporary Vietnamese Art from the
United States and Vietnam

AVAILABLE DATES:  January 18, 1997 - March 30, 1997  (later dates
also available; please call/e-mail to inquire)

CONTENTS:  81 two- and three-dimensional artworks, including
sculpture, prints, paintings, and photographs, bilingual labels and panel
text (in English and Vietnamese)

PARTICIPATION FEE:  $5,500 for a 10-week exhibition period.  Fee
includes: insurance, 50 copies of the exhibition catalogue; and Exhibitor
Kit (installation/registration manual, education and public programming
materials, and press packet including a set of exhibition images for local
publicity)

SHIPPING:  Prorated, designated carrier, est. $3,260; shipping weight
2,542 kg (5,650 lbs.); 28 crates

RUNNING METERS:  152 (500 ft.)

SECURITY:  High

PUBLICATIONS:  A fully illustrated, bilingual (English/Vietnamese)
catalogue accompanies the exhibition.  Each exhibitor receives 50
copies; more can be purchased from the publisher

TOUR THROUGH:  March 1998

EXHIBIITION DESCRIPTION:
An Ocean Apart brings together the works of 41 prominent
contemporary Vietnamese and Vietnamese American artists.  Through its
juxtaposition of artworks in a variety of media, the exhibition
underscores both the common roots and diverging paths of these two
cultures.  Vietnamese art has recently captured the attention of the
international art world, and An Ocean Apart provides museums in the
United States with a unique opportunity to work with this growing
interest and to expand their community relationships with new
audiences.

In addition to the compelling works of art, the exhibition includes
photographic portraits of the artists and illuminating text based on
personal interviews with them.  The life and work of each artist chart an
individual course through the complex issues of identity, tradition,
dislocation, and acculturation.

The Vietnamese have a long and distinctive fine arts tradition that
includes silk painting, watercolor, lacquer, and woodblock prints.  Artists
in Vietnam, who often absorbed Chinese, Japanese, and French
influences in their work, have increasingly delved deeper into their own
cultural past for inspiration.  Traditional styles and materials are
reinterpreted to convey powerful expressions of contemporary
Vietnamese life and landscape. Artists who left Vietnam have
experienced not only the shock of a new culture but also the impact of
an international contemporary art community. Vietnamese Americans
often combine age-old techniques with new materials and influences
encountered in the United States.

Artists in An Ocean Apart span several generations and illustrate a
broad spectrum of sensibilities and philosophies, from Bui Xuan Phai,
Nguyen Gia Tri, and Tran Van Can, three great pioneers of Vietnamese
modern painting, to Dang Xuan Hoa and Dinh Y Nhi, members of a new
generation of artists working in the era of a market economy.  Their
works take form in a variety of media and materials, ranging from lacquer
and eggshells on wood, clay cuts, and watercolor on silk, to oil on
photographic paper, mixed media, and sculpture of wood and steel.

An Ocean Apart poses a dialogue that is helping to break down
dichotomies between the old and new, East and West. At a moment
when global geopolitical change is straining definitions of national and
cultural identities, An Ocean Apart relies upon artists, with their creativity
and spirit of inquiry, to invigorate our perceptions of identity, tradition,
and change.

The exhibition was organized by SITES, with initial selection of artworks
by David Thomas, director of the Indochina Arts Project.  The script was
written by Jeffrey Hantover, noted scholar of contemporary Vietnamese
art.  An Ocean Apart is made possible, in part, by a generous grant from
the Rockefeller Foundation.

CONTACT INFORMATION:
Nicole M. Bouvier
Scheduling & Exhibitor Relations Director
Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition Service (SITES)
1100 Jefferson Drive, SW  MRC 706
Washington, DC 20560
<[log in to unmask]>
202.357.3168 x120 phone
202.357.4324 fax

Visit SITES on the Web! http://www.si.edu/sites/