What I want is to visualize the present as simply as possible; like when we close our eyes and we can hear the noise on the streets. I paint life calmly like writing a diary. Bui Cong Khanh

Bui Cong Khanh (b.1972, Da Nang, Vietnam) has gained an international reputation since the 1990s. His works include performance, painting, installation, ceramic and wood carving. Born on the divide between north and south Vietman in a historic immigrant town of Chinese and Japanese traders since the 18th Century, his works interplay the many histories of his surroundings often touching on the Vietnam war, Vietnam’s colonial past and the modernization of his country. His art is a gestural melding of traditional symbol, cultural ritual and consumer habit. His oil paintings, lacquer experiments, works on paper, performances, installations and ceramic sculptures carry a bombastic sense of color and subject, these varied works often humorously appropriate popular consumer symbol with textual and figurative pun.