TheTwelve Contemporary Artists of Vietnam includes works by Vu Dan Tan, Tran Luong,Truong Tan, Nguyen Bao Toan, Le Quang Ha, Nguyen Minh Thanh, Dinh Y Nhi, LyHoang Ly, Dao Anh Khanh, Ly Tran Quynh Giang, Jun Nguyen Hatsushiba, and LeQuang Dinh.
The book was compiled by journalist Dao Mai Trang, whowrites a contemporary art column for Culture&Arts Magazine.
Theartists all have very different backgrounds and artistic styles, Trang said atthe book's launch.
The sole aim of this book is to furnish art loversboth inside and outside Vietnam with information about the life of contemporaryVietnamese artists, Trang said.
The book is significant for Vietnamesecontemporary art, said artist Tran Luong.
"Thanks to the Danish CultureDevelopment Exchange Fund (which funded the book's publication). I hope it willmake it into the Asia Art Archive in Hong Kong ," Luong said.
Among theartists featured in the book is Jun Nguyen Hatsushiba, who has a Vietnamesefather and a Japanese mother. He is best known for the video of a cyclo underwater. He has been invited to participate in many prestigious events around theworld.
Among the female artists featured in the book are Y Nhi and HoangLy who are both at the forefront of modern Vietnamese art.
Y Nhi hasrejected the traditional Vietnamese style and focuses on contemporary humanfears.
Ly is a famed performance artist. Her work focuses on traditionalVietnamese and Asian female lifestyles.
Bui Nhu Huong, who contributedarticles on Le Quang Ha and Quynh Giang, said he hoped the bilingual book wouldreach a greater readership.
"I highly appreciate the fact that the bookis bilingual. The Vietnam Fine Arts Institute always wanted to bring out abilingual book but was unable to for a number of reasons," Huong said.
Other authors include professor Do Lai Thuy; Nora A Taylor, professor ofSoutheast Asian Art at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago; Iola Lenzi, aSingapore-based critic and independent curator specialising in the contemporaryvisual art of Southeast Asia; and Natalia Kraevskaia, owner of Salon Natasha inVietnam.
The book has 210 pages and is published by The Gioi PublishingHouse./.