From Conflict to Canvas: 50 Years Forward, We Celebrate Vietnam

Why Vietnam? Why now? With 2025 marking exactly half a century since the end of the Vietnam War, and 30 years since the normalization of relations between Vietnam and the United States, this is an opportune time to acquaint ourselves with the art and culture of a country that has undergone extraordinary change; a country with one of the most interesting and vibrant art scenes in Southeast Asia.

Join us for the first show of the season with an Opening Reception, Thursday, September 18, 6 – 8pm.

In collaboration with Art Vietnam Gallery of Hanoi, the Flinn Gallery presents Vietnam: Tradition Upended. This exhibition, the first of our 2025-2026 season, features nine interdisciplinary artists who work in a variety of mediums and styles. These artists all take time-honored traditions and materials and rework them in a modern context, acknowledging the past while simultaneously breaking away.

This exhibition was born out of a visit to Hanoi in the Fall of 2019. Flinn Gallery curators Debra Fram and Barbara Richards traveled throughout the country, looking at art and exploring a Vietnam they knew only through the news and nationwide protests of war. They scheduled a visit to the highly-esteemed Art Vietnam Gallery, to meet the well-known leading authority of contemporary Vietnamese art, Suzanne Lecht. Over the next few hours, they learned that Suzanne had actually lived in backcountry Greenwich in the early nineteen eighties. These three women connected in many ways, keeping up with each other over the next five years, and in the Spring of 2024 this exhibition was born.

How does a nation, a people, an individual, overcome the many struggles and challenges not only in personal life but in a global context? Vietnam is a country with an ancient past and, throughout, the people have endured centuries of war, colonization, internal revolution, great hardship, and the lack of freedom for creative expression. Out of this difficult past an exciting new generation of artists has emerged.

Artists:
Nguyen Cam, Dinh Thi Tham Poong, Vo Tran Chau, Ha Tri Hieu,
Vu Kim Thu, Le Thuy, Pham Van Tuan, Le Thua Tien and Antonius-Tin Bui

Curated by Debra Fram and Barbara Richards of the Flinn Gallery, and Suzanne Lecht of Art Vietnam Gallery in Hanoi. Vietnam: Tradition Upended runs from September 18 through November 12.

Events:
Opening Reception: Thursday, September 18, 6 – 8pm

Artist Talk with Antonius-Tin Bui and Vu Kim Thu:
Saturday, September 20, 2pm Gallery Walkthrough with Co-Curator Suzanne Lecht: Saturday, September 27, 2pm

Gallery Walkthrough with Co-Curator Suzanne Lecht, Art Vietnam Gallery, Hanoi, Vietnam
Saturday, September 27, 2pm, Flinn Gallery

The Flinn Gallery is a non-profit organization sponsored by the Friends of Greenwich Library. The gallery is open Monday through Saturday, 10am – 5pm, Thursday until 8pm, and Sunday 1pm – 5pm. It is located on the second floor of the Greenwich Library, 101 West Putnam Avenue, Greenwich, CT.