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/