New Vietnamese gallery at site of old Glenorchy Ice Rink
The old Glenorchy Ice Rink had been repurposed and turned into a new gallery, proudly displaying the work of three generations of a family of artists. See their stunning work.
Tasmania
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At the Saigon Art Gallery in Glenorchy, Tasmanian landscapes come alive through Vietnamese artistry, and each work hanging on the walls is a love letter to the state.
“Our vision started when our family moved to Tasmania,” co-owner Thi Tuyet Suong Nguyen said.
“Everyone in the family fell in love with the Tasmanian landscape.”
Each carefully crafted piece comes from three generations of a single family of Vietnamese artists.
Ms Nguyen, her husband Xuan Thao Tran, their 21-year-old daughter, Mai Tran and her grandfather, Tran Van Quan all feature the work at the new gallery.
“We specialise in oil paintings, print making and lacquer art, it’s a traditional Vietnamese art,” Ms Nguyen said.
“For the grandad, he has over 30 years of teaching in university in Vietnam in the Ho Chi Minh fine arts university.
“Me and my husband both have over 12 years of teaching, we’ve been artists for over 20 years.”
The family came to Tasmania for their daughter’s studies and quickly fell in love and decided to make it their new home.
Ms Nguyen said they initially had a lot of time to explore the wilderness and capture the picturesque scenery.
She said the family soon began producing artwork, “from the point of view of Vietnamese people to describe the beauty of Tasmania.”
“We have a dog called Loki. Every evening me and my husband take him to the beach, so I painted that.”
“I used to live in Blackmans Bay, I’ve painted Kingston, Lauderdale Beach, the Hobart Rivulet.
“My husband uses traditional techniques and creates fusion art. The image is Tasmania but the technique is Vietnamese.”
Ms Nguyen said Vietnamese lacquer art, a technique which involves creating multiple layers, was quite unique.
She said they were also inspired by Dong Ho folk art.
“The kind of art where they use a lot of red, yellow, the traditional style, all the shapes, all the line work is very Asian,” she said.
“We grew up learning a lot of that.
“For me, my art is inspired by impressionism, van Gogh, that kind of time.”
Ms Nguyen said there was plenty of Tasmanian scenery to capture.
“All of them (the gallery works) are Tasmanian landscape,” she said.
“My husband has a statement piece he spent three years making. In that piece, he collected all the iconic scenes, like Mt Wellington. It’s over two metres long.
“His kind of art takes longer to finish, each piece he spends six months to a year to finish.”
The gallery also has a unique cafe.
“It’s specialty coffee, we’re trying to mimic the flavour of Vietnamese robusta bean, it’s very robust and flavourful,” Ms Nguyen said.
“We have a lot of special drinks like the salted milk foam coffee, we also specialise in matcha, we import our match from Japan.”
The gallery officially opens next Wednesday.
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