An much-awaited exhibition of contemporary art entitled ‘Bridge’, featuring a total of 35 multimedia art works created by U.S. multimedia artist Mark Cooper along with overseas Vietnamese artist Vu Trong Thuan, will open tomorrow, Wednesday, at the Da Nang Fine Arts Museum, 78 Le Duan, and it will run until 3 April.

U.S. multimedia artist Mark Cooper and overseas Vietnamese artist Vu Trong Thuan completing preparations for the exhibition

Mark Cooper is based in Boston, Massachusetts working mostly in ceramics, sculptural installation, and painting. He is best known for his large-scale biomorphic fiberglass sculptures. His paintings and sculptures made with fiberglass pieces, layered with rice paper, paint, silk-screens, and varying images and patterns, “explore dualities of culture and meaning”.

He participated in a total of around 100 exhibitions, some of which were held at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, Boston College Museum, Capital Children's Museum in Washington, DC, DeCordova Museum and Sculpture Park, and the Whitney Museum of American Art at Philip Morris, New York.

The U.S. artist has received various public art commissions and grants from the Boston Medical Center, an Artist Fellowship Grant through the Massachusetts Cultural Council, and a Gund Travel Grant (Bali), and a special commission for the new Comme des Garçon store in New York City.

Cooper has visited Viet Nam for 5 times, but this is the first time he has attended such an exhibition on the installation arts in Da Nang through the introduction by David Thomas, who is the founder and President of the Indochina Arts Partnership, a non-governmental, non-profit organisation which has conducted numerous cultural exchange programmes between the U.S. and Viet Nam.

It took Cooper a lot of time to find materials to realise his idea at the upcoming Da Nang exhibition. Amongst them are ceramic items with many different shapes that he made by himself at the pottery workshop of the Ha Noi University of Fine Arts, special type of paper brought from the U.S. Noticeably, there are also other patterns created by himself and artist Thuan.

In Cooper’s remarks, the 35 multimedia art works on display at the exhibition seem to merge into the only one featuring a harmonious mix and interaction between installation techniques, materials, cultural imprints, and the artists’ ideas.

Invited to join with Cooper, artist Thuan showed his excitement, not only because of the artistic interaction opportunity the exhibition offers, but, above all else, the event is “bringing something really new and attractive to the Da Nang arts”. Amongst the works that artist Thuan brought to the exhibition, there are newly-created exhibits that have just made their public debut, including “Moon”, “Storm”, and “Boat”.

Hailing this exhibition, Deputy Director of the Da Nang Fine Arts Museum Nguyen Thi Trinh added, the museum has spent much time making preparation plans for this special event. She affirmed, the opening of such a meaningful contemporary art exhibition not only meets the increasing public demand for arts, but it also enhances international cooperation and friendship, and demonstrates the city’s achievements in cultural diplomacy as well. The theme of the exhibition, “Bridge”, aims to ensure a closer ties amongst the artistic talents and the cultural values of Viet Nam and the U.S, hereby creating a bridge bring the 2 countries closer.

The artists jointly creating the 5m-long acrylic painting

On Tuesday morning, Cooper, Thuan and other painters from Da Nang, Ho Chi Minh City and Ha Noi jointly created a 5m-long acrylic painting at the lobby of the Da Nang Museum of Fine Arts.

The work features creativity and various special ideas from the participating artists. The amazing thing reported here is that, individual pieces of the whole painting merge into an “impressive bridge”. This painting will be donated to the museum soon.