Craig Thomas Gallery is pleased to announce Hope, a solo exhibition of paintings by Vietnam-based artist Pham Huy Thong.  The cocktail reception opening of Hope on 11 December will also double as the grand opening of CTG’s second gallery space in Ho Chi Minh City.  CTG’s second gallery is located at 165 Calmette Street in the central business district of Saigon.

Pham Huy Thong (b. 1981) is one of Vietnam’s most thoughtful and compelling young visual artists.  A talented painter, Thong’s previous collections Dong Bao (2010) and Hands (2012) have demonstrated not only his technical finesse but also his relevance as a commentator on the social and polictical issues effecting Vietnam and the Southeast Asian region. 

Thong commenced the Hope series in early 2014 with an aim towards focusing on issues relating to Vietnam’s rural farmers and urban poor.  The artist wishes to highlight how Vietnam’s recent process of urbanization and modernization has created and is exacerbating the gap between rich and poor in the country. Of the Hope series, Thong says:

“I want to portray images of famers in a spiral of economic changes. As in all developing economies, farmers in Vietnam have had to flee their homes and fields to get to the cities where they can find jobs and more secure incomes.  As a result, village culture and family clan ties thousands of years in the making have been loosened.  In my most recent paintings, I want to look more deeply but also more generally at the issues surrounding the process of a farmer leaving his ancestral village.

Opening Reception: Friday, December 11, 2015

Exhibition Dates: December 11, 2015 – January 8, 2016

Location: Craig Thomas Gallery, 165 Calmette Street, Nguyen Thai Binh Ward, D1

Contact: cthomasgallery@gmail.com