Draft:UuDam Tran Nguyen

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UuDam Tran Nguyen (Nguyễn Trần Ưu Đàm in Vietnamese) (born 01 Jan, 1971), is a Vietnamese artist living and working in Sài Gòn, Việt Nam. UuDam has a unique and ambitious practice ranging from conceptual sculpture and drawings installation to robotics app art & performances realized in many media looking for answers to the big questions of life. UuDam was born into an artist family in Kontum, central highland of Việt Nam. He attended the University of Fine Arts in Sài Gòn (HCMC) and later got his Bachelor of Arts at UCLA and Master of Fine Arts at School of Visual Arts in NYC. He exhibited widely in museums and Biennales in Asia, Europe and the US.

LIFE and CAREER

VIETNAM

UuDam Tran Nguyen was born on in Kontum, Vietnam, during the time of the Vietnam War with the US, son of Nguyen Tuan Khanh (Artist) father and Tran Thi Bich Van (Nurse) mother. His dad is a famous Vietnamese painter, writer and poet under Rừng, Kinh Dương Vương and Dung Nham of the Young Association of Artist before 1975 in South Vietnam.

In 1990, he entered the University of Fine Arts in Sài Gòn (Hồ Chí Minh city). Here UuDam studied sculpture with Russian-trained instructors on relief and figurative sculpture. After 3 years, he began to travel the country and learned to do ceramics at Bát Tràng village where he made his first Contemporary Buddha. (picture ). UuDam did not graduate but went on to pursuit his B.A. at University of California Los Angeles (UCLA). Eager to learn about the American East Coast culture, he relocated to New York City and got his MFA from the School of Visual Arts (SVA) in 2005. In America, he studied with artists, Charles Ray, Paul McCarthy, Sarah Sze, Loren Madsen, and Pulitzer-award winning critic Jerry Saltz, .... It is at SVA during his MFA, he came up with his famed Fuck Buttons and Sex, Orgy and Beyond series .

During his time in the USA, he made one of the memorable trip with his Dad, friend and brother around America, crossing the Southern States from California to Arizona, Mississippi, Texas, Miami to Key West and up to Washington DC, Main, Nigagara Falls to Canada, Wyoming and Idaho to Washington State and down to Oregon back to California. It gives him a pictures of the vast America he was eager to explore.

His trips to Europe backpacking

His trips to Europe to spread the Fuck buttons at Tate Modern,

His campaign for the Fuck Buttons in NYC, CA, ...

LOS ANGLES - NEW YORK (AMERICA)

After graduation, he returned to Los Angles and apprenticed at Charley Ray Venice studio 3 days a week and practicing his art till 2008.

Here in LA, he made Dickhead (Thinker) that portrays new way of meditative thinking, Thinking Rock for High Desert Test Sites exhibition curated by Andre Zittlel, finished a new version of Contemporary Buddha in bronze

BACK TO VIETNAM

2007, UuDam returned to Sài Gòn, Vietnam for a talk at Sàn Art, a leading non-profit organization of artist Đinh Q Le.

From 2010, he have been permanently based in Sài Gòn

2013, He showed case his video Waltz of the Machine Equestrians in Singapore Biennale. Curated by Nguyen Nhu Huy and a team of 27 curators from South East Asia.

2014, Koganecho Bazzar and the introduction of License 2 Draw, curated by Nguyen Nhu Huy and Makiko Hara

2015 Japan Media Art Festival award, Bildmuseet MMM, Time Boomerang first exhibition, launch 1st fingertip into the ocean

2016 QAGOMA, debut Serpents' Tails, launched 2nd fingertip

2017 Esplanade, SAM License 2 Draw, Heritage Space (Hà Nội)

In 2017 he was featured in the major group exhibition, SUNSHOWER, Contemporary Art from Southeast Asia 1980s to Now, jointly hosted by the Mori Art Museum and National Art Center in Tokyo, Japan. This is the first debut on a full scale of Time Boomerang for the first time in Asia that include a Map Breaking Performance and core display system that is on-going.

2018 Shanghai Biennale,

2019 Time Boomerang at OCMA, Quỳnh Gallerie, CMA CGM, launched 3rd fingertip

2020 ACC

2021 Asian Art Biennale

Time Boomerang

Yelling Faces

In God We Trust

WCB

SELECTED ARTWORKS/EXHIBITIONS

·       2012. Kadist San Francisco. Poetic Politics. - group exhibition with Bùi Công Khánh, Phan Quang, Khvay Samnang, .... First showing of the famed video Waltz of the Machine Equestrians. Curated by Zoe Butt and Hou Hanrou. The video first was later collected by Kadist San Francisco.

·   2013 Singapore Biennale: curated by Nguyen Nhu Huy and 26 other curator under Tan Boon Hui directorship. Showing Waltz of The Machine Equestrians video.

·       2015 Asia Pacific Triennale 8: Serpents' Tails debut and License 2 Draw online version debut APT Kids. Curated by

·       2016: BODY/PLAY/POLITICS, Yokohama Museum of Art, Yokohama, Japan - group exhibition with Yinka Sonibare, Yee I-Lann, Apichatpong Weerasethakul, UuDam Tran Nguyen, Ishikawa Ryuichi and Tamura Yuichiro. First time showing hundreds off handmade inflatable sculptures outside Vietnam. Curated by Eriko Kimura.

·       Bildmuseet Museum - Lecture and performance launching the 1st fingertip into the Gulf of Bothnia, completing the first step of Phase #2. Conquering Europe, one of Earth's 5 continents. Time Boomerang: The New Conqueror with a good Passport.

·  Performance: Time Boomerang step 2 of Phase #2: The New Conqueror with a Good Passport: Launching the 2 fingertip into the Australian ocean. Conquered Australia.

·       Japan Media Art prize 2015: won the Jury Prize for License 2 Draw. The first crowd-sourcing app art of the same name that allows anyone to move a L2D robot carrying color pens on a canvas thoundsands of miles away via the L2D app and their smart phones/devices.

·       Aichi Triennale 2016: Exhibiting the in three cities Aichi, ..., ....

·       Sunshower 2016: showing TB for the first time with the map breaking performance. Phase #4: Creating a new Freaking World Order. Curated by Mami Kataoka and her team at Mori Art Museum.

·       2017 L2D at SAM. Showing the artwork License 2 Draw in Singapore Art museum. Curated by Andrea Fam and John Savage. Simultaneously projecting the video of the robot in Japan's Yamamoto Gendai galery in Toky and UuDam studio in Viet Nam. The first time exhibiting the License 2 Draw in there venues of 3 countriess.

·       Yamamoto Gendai: showing L2D in Tokyo for the first time simultaneously with SAM and UuDam studio in Sài Gòn. Curator visit Andrea Fam and John Savage in Tokyo Yamamoto Gendai

·       Shanghai Biennale: new 2 maps of China was commissioned by Cuauhtemoc Medina and Weiwei Wang

·       2019 OCMA Expand. The biggest Time Boomerang installation to date with 4 staircases for map breaking in 4 corners of the worlds, arrived in America by new means, freighter and conquering it.

·       2019 Quynh Galerie. Serpents' Tails solo show. First showing of a full scale OUTDOOR installations of hundreds of Inflatable Sculptures, 5 light-boxes up to 3m high, 3 videos and WOTME canopy designed for this special occasion, 20 old motorcycles, Breath and Wings of Desires.

·       Performance TIME BOOMERANG, crossing the PACIFIC Ocean on the CMA CGM freighter with the 3rd fingertip.

·       Launching the 3rd bronze fingertip into the California ocean at, officially conquered the Americas. Third continents of 5.

·       2020 Asia Culture Center. The show .... at one of the biggest art center in Asia. Showing Elephant in the Room for the first time outside Vietnam. Major non-virtual show during Covid.

·       2021 NTMOFA

·       2022 His Dad died in California. He honored him with the Yelling Face Style Portrait and the reverse clock artwork "I understood now" in the exhibition IN GOD WE TRUST the year after at University of the Arts Singapore (NAFA, Lasalle)

·       2023 IN GOD WE TRUST first solo exhibition at the Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts (UAS). A tribute to his artist Dad with the new Yelling Faces series portrait. The debut of 3 new sculptures the Tongue, In God We Trust and King Midas' Finger and 4 Weapon country (Vietnam, Italy, China and Ukraine). The backward running clock. Workshop with students at NAFA making weapons. This is his new body of work that contemplate power of hatred on a span 30 years and the fate of humanity in the tease of real nuclear destruction!

. 2023 XEM 10 Years. A collection of 5 works that piece together the journey that leads to the artwork Eco-Đi with six disciplines (conceptual, performance, sculpture, intervention, advertising) to save Earth's Ecology. Group show with 4 member of his collective XEM. Nguyen Thanh Truc, Hoang Duong Cam, Phan Quang, Quang Lam.

PUBLICATIONS:

References

World Condom Project on Litviet. Read in Vietnamese Helen Jennifer Zhao & Ưu Đàm Nguyễn – “Fuck Buttons” Khám phá những hình thái của dục tính thế kỷ 21 https://litviet.net/2012/08/25/helen-jennifer-zhao-uu-da%CC%80m-nguye%CC%83n-fuck-buttons-kha%CC%81m-pha%CC%81-nhu%CC%83ng-hi%CC%80nh-tha%CC%81i-cu%CC%89a-duc-ti%CC%81nh-the-ky-21/

https://asiasociety.org/new-york/exhibitions/video-spotlight-uudam-tran-nguyen

https://ntu.ccasingapore.org/residency/uudam-tran-nguyen/

https://www.nafa.edu.sg/events/in-god-we-trust

https://www.powerstationofart.com/whats-on/programs/shanghai-bienniale-2018/artists-and-artworks/UuDam%20Tran%20Nguyen

https://www.art-it.asia/en/top_e/admin_expht_e/194869/

https://aura-asia-art-project.com/en/artists/uudam-tran-nguyen/

https://www.instituteforpublicart.org/case-studies/license-2-draw/

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yinka_Shonibare

cotter-holland

https://www.facebook.com/HighLineArt/photos/a.404540429613026/1144593578941037/?paipv=0&eav=AfYjEsvHQKGmkChdQhz5WXS1tVLdoyXRn09j3DimOPJ5HC5gJhkJYKLNMVUwnrZVyBM&_rdr

https://risdmuseum.org/exhibitions-events/exhibitions/uudam-tran-nguyen