VietNamNet Bridge - ‘Nguyen The Dung Cows-Human Beings’ exhibition opened on April 16 at the Viet Arts Center, 42 Yet Kieu Street in Hanoi.



This is the second solo exhibition of painter Nguyen The Dung, 27, after the success of the first titled “Flock of One Cow” at the Castus Gallery in Saigon last year.

Nguyen The Dung continues to feature the image of cows in his second exhibition, with a new look.

He does not draw female cows with human heads, which show off their bodies in different figures like the first exhibition, but the portraits of fussy cows elegantly dressed like gentlemen in suits.
Cows are depicted as naive, unhurried with amusing faces who are trying to stand, look into and survive modern life as a human.

The cows look as if they are cloned together but sometimes they stand together, sometimes they stand separately and sit in varied poses.

Portraits are highlighted by faces of cows, human arms and bodies together with nice costumes, striking with the light systems. Unlike the sacred being in Greek folklore, the cows in Dung’s paintings are a metaphor for some people in modern life based on simple cursory belief and miscellaneous perception.

“Ironically, to me, the cows are images of humans who try to show off with a fabulous outside appearance instead of insight values and whose minds and souls are lost in trade development and fraud, and in a world that is ready-made, causing them to feel lazy to think or create,” the painter says.



He says that a herd of cows is like a group of people who live without a thought or care.

Born in 1985 in the central province of Thanh Hoa, Dung graduated from the Fine Art Teacher Training University in 2008. He is now a post-graduate student at the Vietnam Fine Arts University.

In 2007, Dung won the first award of the Vietnam-RoK Red River Contest. He participated in a painting exhibition in Germany in 2006 and in Thailand in 2011.

The exhibition will open until April 21.

PV