Through August 27th, Launch Gallery takes viewers on a tour of Sacred Landscapes II, courtesy of Hung Viet Nguyen.
The lush, jeweled pastels of Nguyen’s mosaic-like worlds are inspired “in part by Joan Miro and Pablo Picasso,” according to the artist, and completely by his deep love of nature.
“I’ve always loved nature, whether I’m hiking or walking. All my life, it’s been about nature for me. Everybody can paint landscapes, but I wanted to come up with serial landscapes that represented significant meaning, ” Nguyen says.
His landscapes are indeed sacred – to him, and to the viewer. They are created with beautiful detail and a great deal of insight into a magical world, a perfect fairy-tale realm.
“You accumulate a lot in the art field,” he attests. “From Van Gogh to Hockney, I’ve gathered inspiration.” Other inspirations: “the patterns of a Zen garden, and water.” His images of water are particularly compelling.
Nguyen’s magical paintings are highly detailed. “I sketch the whole area, geometrically. I divide the canvas into sections. In some, I put the oil thick enough to use on a palette knife. Other areas are flat. I’m not an abstract artist, I plan each area of the canvas.”
In terms of technique, Nguyen combines traditional elements such as Japanese woodblock and mosaic into a painterly style with varying textures and a rich panoply of style. Complex and labor intensive to create, the artist’s work has a quality of wonder that’s fluid and graceful.
You could dive into the waters of this dreamscape, you could absorb the colors of sky, water, and earth.
Enter Nguyen’s world to experience a love-letter, a poem, to a prismatic landscape that glows from the light of a thousand suns.
- Genie Davis; Photos’ Jack Burke