"Art is vital for me. It is almost a religion. It means to believe in people, in life, in love. It is a response to what is beautiful and ugly. As an artist I do what I do for no other purpose than to express my feelings." -- Tuan
By its very nature, "sculpture" often suggests "mass"Ö if only in the weight of its material - be it bronze, marble or stone. To experience the bronze figurative sculpture of Vietnamese artist, Tuan, however, is to experience the defiance of the nature of bronze sculpture. Tuan glorifies the beauty of the human form with masterful precision. However, the true uniqueness of his style is not in the physical expression of human beauty, but in his ability to infuse physical "mass" with an almost divine sense of weightlessness.
Tuanís artwork radiates peacefulness and serenity through graceful lines and rhythmic compositions so that while glorifying the human body, he at the same time glorifies the human spirit, exalting the exhilarating experience of life. Tuan infuses his sculpture with a celestial beauty that carries his human forms beyond earthly existence and into the realm of the heavenly in a quiet celebration of life. Though cast in bronze, his forms appear to be magically suspended like angels on the wing.
The serenity and celebration reflected in his work comes in striking contradiction to Tuanís own past. Born in Vietnam in 1963, Tuan experienced the fall of Saigon in 1975, survived a failed escape attempt from his native land in 1988, witnessed the death of his closed friend in the same escape attempt, and was then cast into a concentration camp. Almost miraculously, he escaped the camp and fled to the United States where he became captivated with sculpting. In 1995, Tuan received his fine art degree from the Art Institute of Southern California in Laguna Beach, CA.
Tuan has received the Gloria Medal from the National Sculpture Society (New York), a medal designed by C. Paul Jennewein and bestowed upon a young artist in Jenneweinís memory for a meritorious body of work as determined by the luminary board of the Society. He has been exhibited throughout Southern California and has been commissioned for a number of public and private works, including a memorial bust for the Nicole Brown Simpson Charitable Foundation in 1997.
TUAN
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