Header image: Manny Trinh, Sojourn, 2023, Acrylic on canvas, 8″ x 10″. Image courtesy of the artist.
Curated by Sally Frater
Exhibition: January 8 – February 18 2024
Opening Reception: Friday, January 12, 2024 7:00-10:00 pm.
Moving across genres Manny Trinh’s mixed-media works explore intersections between built space, the natural landscape, and recollection. This installation of paintings and sculpture draw on his vivid memories of his childhood in Vietnam, conveying the beauty and resilience embedded within the architecture and ecologies that exist there as well as his evolving relationship to them. Three bodies of work comprise Work-in(g) Process: a series of paintings on canvas of domestic cluster housing; a group of paintings on decommissioned passports that touch on notions of cultural hybridity; and a relatively new series of wooden sculptures that allow viewers to immerse themselves in the textures and physicality of the structures that are rendered on canvas. The range of materials that Trinh deploys allows him to delve deeper into the essence of form, texture and storytelling within his artistic practice while collapsing the space between different geographic location and terrain. Presenting dynamic works that underscore the ways in which urban and natural spaces are marked by human activity, Trinh encourages viewers of his work to more closely examine how their perceptions and experiences of place are informed by where they are situated in relation.
About the Artist
Manny Trinh (born 1974 in Saigon City, Vietnam) immigrated to Canada when he was 11 years old. He is a painter and visual artist.
Trinh’s practice explores the nuances of contradiction. His vivid impressions of the human landscape of his homeland — dense yet sprawling, chaotic with an underlying order, decaying but full of life and growth — have become major influences on his work.
From engaging with a bright, complementary, almost fauvist or pop colour palette to experiments in greyscale and monochrome, the artist focuses on the entanglement of fantasy and reality; encapsulating a recognizable human core within surreal technology and splintered mechanical landscapes. The various techniques Trinh employs in wet and dry brushwork found in his acrylic, watercolour and gouache paintings are studies probing the surface and texture of our dichotomous environments, acknowledging generations of cultural evolution. His work can be found at Wall Space Gallery. Manny Trinh lives and works in Toronto, Canada.
About the Curator
Sally Frater is the daughter of immigrants from the Caribbean. Her curatorial interests touch on decolonial praxis, place, Back and Caribbean diasporas, art of the everyday, and eco-criticism. She has curated exhibitions for the Art Gallery of Ontario, The McColl Center for Art and Innovation, Glassell School of Art at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Justina M. Barnicke Gallery at the University of Toronto, Project Row Houses, and the Art Gallery of Guelph. Frater has also completed fellowships and residencies with Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, UT Dallas Centraltrak, Southern Methodist University, Project Row Houses and Art21. Frater is a member of the Association of Art Museum Curators and is an alumna of Independent Curators International.
Centre[3] for Artistic + Social Practice
173 James Street North
Hamilton, Ontario
L8R 2K9
905.524.5084
centre3.com
Instagram: @centre3_
Facebook: @centre3
Twitter: @centre3
Contact: Sarah Sproule, outreach@centre3.com
Land Acknowledgement: Centre[3] for Artistic + Social Practice acknowledges that its organization, located in Hamilton, is on the traditional territories of the Erie, Neutral, Huron-Wendat, Mississauga and Haudenosaunee nations whose presence here reaches back to time immemorial. Centre[3] recognizes the historical oppression of Indigenous peoples, cultures and lands in what is now known as Canada and is committed to healing and decolonizing together through the arts.
Accessibility: Our 173 James North location is partially physically accessible. We have a level entrance with automatic doors leading to our galleries, information desk, and traditional print studio. We have a wheelchair-accessible, gender neutral washroom with automatic doors. Unfortunately, we an elevator to access the screen printing studios or offices. We are working toward becoming a physically accessible space in the future.
This exhibition and workshop are generously supported by Canada Council for the Arts, Ontario Arts Council, City of Hamilton
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This exhibition is open during Centre[3]'s regular open hours:
Monday - Friday 10:00 a.m.– 5:00 p.m.
