Shock and sorrow has poured out from Asia’s artwork neighborhood over the loss of life on 6 April of the Vietnamese-American multimedia artist Dinh Q. Lê on the age of 56.
“Dinh Q. Lê was not solely an important artist however a very nice man,” says Katie de Tilly, founding father of his Hong Kong gallery, 10 Chancery Lane. “He had a eager sense of seeing and was in a position to translate very sturdy messages into artwork. He was a profound story teller. He was the kindest and most humble man who wished to serve others of their artwork journey and began the non-profit arts organisation Sàn Artwork in Vietnam to assist younger Vietnamese artists on their path. It was such an honour to work with him and to know him as a buddy. We already miss him a lot and behold him in Divine Gentle and Love as he strikes on.”
“Our founder, our buddy and our mentor Dinh Q. Lê is gone. We’re past devastated to announce this information,” was posted on Fb by Sàn Artwork, the influential Ho Chi Minh Metropolis non-profit artists’ area that Lê based in 2007. Additionally a library and academic centre, the grassroots initiative has been on the forefront of growing and selling inventive innovation in Vietnam.
Lê is survived by his longtime associate Ngô Minh Hảo and their just lately adopted kitten named Monkey. He is named a lot for his mentorship and assist for artwork communities in Ho Chi Minh Metropolis, Vietnam—the place he lived from 1996 and the place he died—and all of Southeast Asia as for his highly effective works difficult politics, historical past and reminiscence.
“Goodbye, previous buddy. Relaxation in energy,” the Singapore-based artist Heman Chong writes on Instagram. “Thanks for at all times being so good and sort to me. Thanks for reminding me to by no means quick promote myself and discuss shit about my very own work. Your recommendation and mentorship has been invaluable. I’ll at all times be thankful for your friendship.”
Lê’s works included images, video, sculpture and set up, and he was finest identified for his distinctive photo-weaving works, a tribute to a Vietnamese custom he first discovered as a baby from his aunt. His work took sharp purpose on the violent historical past of, and world narratives surrounding, Southern Vietnam, incorporating matters like migration, labour, censorship, exploitation and propaganda. His perspective as a homosexual man in addition to an American immigrant from Vietnam knowledgeable his explorations in regards to the mutability of self-identity and private and historic reminiscence.
Born in 1968 in Ha Tien, Vietnam, close to the border with Cambodia, Dinh Q. Lê, along with his mom and 6 siblings, fled Khmer Rouge violence and emigrated to the USA in 1978. Lê acquired his BFA from UC Santa Barbara in 1989 and MFA from The Faculty of Visible Arts in 1992. He moved from New York to Ho Chi Minh Metropolis in 1996, and regained Vietnamese citizenship solely in 2021. Lê had solely simply accomplished development in his house village of a coastal floating studio, which he hoped would draw extra artists to go to the realm.
Lê in 2010 acquired the Prince Claus Award for his excellent contribution to cultural alternate. Along with 10 Chancery Lane, Lê is co-represented by STPI in Singapore, P•P•O•W in New York, Elizabeth Leach Gallery in Portland, and Shoshana Wayne Gallery in Los Angeles. Lê took half in main exhibitions together with Documenta (13) in 2012, the 2003 Venice Biennale, the 2006 Asia-Pacific Triennial of Modern Artwork, and the 2008 Singapore Biennale. His solo exhibitions included reveals at Asia Society, New York, in 2005, the Museum of Trendy Artwork, New York, in 2010, Tokyo’s Mori Artwork Museum and the Hiroshima Metropolis Artwork Museum in 2015.
“Dinh was an uncle to everybody within the Vietnamese artwork scene, younger or previous, native or foreigner, mentor to many,” says Christopher Moore, the Ho Chi Minh Metropolis-based founding father of the net artwork journal Ran Dian. Moore had identified Lê because the Nineties. Final 12 months, Lê and Moore together with Quynh Nguyen of the Nguyen Artwork Basis and Dominic Scriven of the Dogma Assortment established Đương Đại Việt, an organisation to advertise and professionalise the Vietnamese artwork scene. “He was very wry and infrequently ascerbic,” Moore says. “He was additionally beneficiant with time and assets. Vietnam’s seminal artwork area Sàn Artwork, which Dinh based with artists Tuan Andrew Nguyen and Tiffany Chung wouldn’t have survived with out Dinh’s assist.”
“He repeatedly participated in public debates on all types of matters past the world of artwork,” like a debate on Asian colorism organised by Sàn Artwork and the German consulate, Moore remembers. “He was additionally illiberal of pretension and fools—able to name out lecturers,” reminiscent of excoriating on social media a white tutorial who challenged Lê’s credentials to debate racial points.