Seoul–Pace is pleased to present a solo exhibition of work by Huong Dodinh at its arts complex in Seoul. On view from July 7 to August 19, this presentation will mark Dodinh’s debut solo show with the gallery and her first-ever solo exhibition in Asia. Titled VIE | VIDE, the upcoming exhibition will feature new paintings from the artist’s K.A. series as well as works on paper created between the 1980s and 1990s. Dodinh seldom exhibits her art publicly, and VIE | VIDE will shine a spotlight on the artist’s unique practice and life’s work following decades of detachment from the mainstream art world.
Dodinh was born in Soc Trang, Vietnam in 1945. Forced to flee the country, her family sought refuge in Paris in 1953 after the outbreak of the First Indochina War. Dodinh has lived and worked in Paris ever since, cultivating a monastic, solitary life in service of her artistic pursuits. The artist’s exhibition in Seoul marks not only her first solo exhibition in Asia, but also a deeply personal return to the continent—Dodinh has only visited Vietnam one time since 1953, in 1993. The title of her forthcoming exhibition, VIE | VIDE, meaning “life | emptiness,” encapsulates the essence of Dodinh’s practice, which centers on light’s phenomenological nuances and collisions of contrasting elements, ideas, and histories—life and death, light and darkness, and East and West.
For nearly six decades, Dodinh has devoted her painting practice to three central tenets: clarity, density, and transparency. Her works explore the fluidity of line, form, and negative space to create elegant minimalist compositions. By nurturing a private, intensely insular, and regimented way of life, the artist has developed a distinctive process that blurs the boundaries between art and everyday life. Working alone and without any assistants in her Paris atelier, Dodinh takes personal ownership over every step in her process, from sourcing mineral powders for her pigments in Provence to mounting her canvases and applying her paint. Renowned for creating her own pigments and organic binders by hand, Dodinh applies thin layers of paint multiple times to forge transparent yet dense surfaces. Her use of natural materials produces vibrant visual effects through absorptions and reflections of light.
Dodinh’s exhibition with Pace in Seoul will focus on her K.A. series, which she began in the early 2000s. In these paintings, delicate geometries are set against almost translucent backgrounds. Subtle lines and colors seem to trace the movements of a dancer, serving as pathways between Dodinh’s inner and outer worlds. Featuring K.A. works created in the past year as well as a composition from 2011, the presentation will showcase the artist’s ability to imbue her abstractions with radiance and depth. The show will also include two rarely seen works on paper from 1989 and 1992, respectively. Together, these artworks will speak to the contemplative, spiritual nature of Dodinh’s practice.
Recent exhibitions by Dodinh include her 2021 retrospective at the Guimet Museum in Paris and her solo presentation at the Museo Correr in Venice during the 2022 Venice Biennale. Through her work, Dodinh strives to harmonize relationships and engage in a meaningful exchange with the world around her. As she has said, "Art is a process of opening oneself to others."
Huong Dodinh (b. 1945, Soc Trang, Vietnam) was born in 1945 in Soc Trang, in the Mekong Delta, Vietnam. Dodinh and her family were forced to flee their war torn home in 1953 and sought refuge in Paris, where the artist continues to live and work today. At a boarding school in Rambouillet, Dodinh witnessed snow for the first time, marveling at the blending of land and sky. She calls this luminescent scene her artistic “epiphany” and it continues to inspire her painting. Dodinh studied at the prestigious École Nationale Supérieure de Beaux-Arts in Paris from 1965 to 1969, completing courses in a wide array of disciplines including engraving, lithography, frescoes, painting, and architecture. During this time, Dodinh was deeply affected by the violence of the Vietnam War and the uprisings of May 1968. After a three-year break, Dodinh was able to return to her artistic practice with a newfound sense of freedom. In the decades that followed, Dodinh dedicated herself to painting, occasionally exhibiting in Paris and often encountering fellow artists based in France such as Peter Matisse, Joan Mitchell, and Lisa de Kooning.
