Lac Viet Gallery - Arlington VA - Artist Duc Tan Nguyen - Vu

[walter_lee Last Name]

Area's 1st Vietnamese art gallery opens doors
By CLARISSA SPASYK
Fairfax Journal. April 16, 2001.
http://www.jrnl.com/cfdocs/new/ffx/story.cfm?caldate=04162001&paper=ffx&section=fp&snumber=04

The first Vietnamese contemporary art gallery in the metropolitan
Washington, D.C., area opened last evening in Arlington County.
Lac Viet Gallery, at 3435 Washington Blvd., shows abstract
paintings and sculptures, including ones made out of such unusual
materials as metal auto parts, eggshells and sand. Duc Tan Nguyen,
41, a Falls Church artist, runs the new gallery, which art
lovers say is very much like ones found in New York City's SoHo
art district. Nguyen, according to friends who spoke for him
because he speak little English, moved to Northern Virginia
five years ago. "His dream was to have his own studio," said
friend Kelly Nguyen. "He's been working hard on making the
[second-floor] loft into a gallery. It's the first Vietnamese
gallery of these standards in the country." The gallery
holds about 100 pieces of artwork - all for sale - as well
as a studio and frame shop. Max Eberle, of Arlington, a
friend of Nguyen's and a fellow artist, is a big fan. He
calls Nguyen a local legend. "He's been inspired by
other greats, such as Picasso and Miro, and uses vibrant
colors, space and emotion," he said. Nguyen's recent
work with metal sculptures also is unique, Eberle said.
"He ingeniously composes pieces of `junk' together
into dynamic shapes of people, resulting in forms that
take on a distinct life of their own," he said. "He makes
them even more expressive by not covering up the
weathering which the materials may have experienced
in their journey." "[Nguyen's] sculptures remind us
that beauty can be found and created from expected
sources," Eberle added. Besides displaying Nguyen's
own Picasso-like paintings and sculptures made of
auto mufflers and pipes, the gallery shows works
by a dozen other Vietnamese artists, including
Vu Thang and Hoang Ha Tung. Kelly Nguyen said both
Thang and Tung live in Vietnam and combine
traditional Vietnamese and modern art. Thang is
known for his lacquer paintings and watercolors
on rice paper, while Tung specializes in oil and
canvas paintings, as well as watercolors on rice
paper, she said. The Lac Viet Gallery will be open
from 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. every day.

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