Photo courtesy of Dinh Q. Lê, 2014
Tuesday, March 31, 2015, 5:30 PM | Center for Creative Photography 108
Lecture: Obdurate History
Bio: Dinh Q. Lê
Artist and Co-founder & Chairman of the Board of San Art
Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam www.san-art.org
Dinh Q. Lê was born in Ha-Tien, Vietnam. He received his BA in Art studio at UC Santa Barbara and his MFA in Photography and Related Media at The School of Visual Arts in New York City. In 1994, Lê returned to Vietnam and in 1997 Lê settled down in Ho Chi Minh City.
Lê’s artistic practice consistently challenges how our memories are recalled with context in contemporary life. Whether he provokes the dominance of film and media in the creation of historical legacy; the confluence of cultural tradition and contemporary tragedy in his woven photographs; the re-placement of everyday urban objects into artistic wonders; or by documenting the un-chronicled stories of those who endured the first helicopter war – what all of these artistic investigations elucidate is a commitment to the artistic process as a means of excavating history, in the uncovering and revealing of alternate ideas of loss and redemption.
Lê’s work has exhibited worldwide. His recent solo exhibitions include, A Tapestry of Memories: The Art of Dinh Q. Lê at the Bellevue Art Museum, Washington State; Destination for the New Millennium, The Art of Dinh Q. Lê at the Asia Society, New York, and Project 93: Dinh Q. Lê at Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), New York.
He was also included in the 55th International Short Film Festival Oberhausen, 2009 City Visions Festival, Mechelen, Belgium; 2008 Singapore Biennale; Thermocline of Art exhibition at ZKM in Germany; the 5th Asia Pacific Triennial at Gallery of Modern Art in Brisbane Australia; The Gwangju Biennial 2006, Korea; Delays and Revolutions, Venice Biennale 2003; in dOCUMENTA (13) 2012; and the 2013 Carnegie International.
Besides being an artist, Lê also co-founded Vietnam Art Foundation-VNFA based in Los Angeles, an organization that supports Vietnamese artists and promotes artistic exchange between cultural workers from Vietnam and around the world. Through funding from VNFA, Lê co-founded San Art, the most active not for profit gallery and residency program in Vietnam. He is currently on the Arts Network Asia Peer Panel, board member of Danish Embassy’s Cultural Development and Exchange Fund (CDEF) in Hanoi, Asia Society Global Council, and Guggenheim Asian Council. Lê was awarded the 2010 Visual Art Laureate, Prince Claus Fund, Amsterdam. Lê is the current recipient of the Rockefeller Foundation’s 2014 Bellagio Creative Arts Fellows.
