Danh Vō

b. 1975, Vietnamese-Danish

By Sylvia Walker

November 25, 2020

Danh Vō is a contemporary artist living and working in Mexico City, Mexico, and Berlin, Germany. Born in 1975 in Vietnam and raised in Denmark, Vō is a performance art-inspired conceptual artist.

Danh Vō at South London Gallery. Film still from Danh Vo: untitled at the South London Gallery | Artist interview (2019). Filming and editing by Gordon Beswick.

The works by Vō emerge from his biography, his own life and path, personal relationships, and encounters. His works are objects as the final form of his project, images that have accrued shifting layers of meaning and touching specific events or universal icons.[1] Using his own life as a guideline, the artist explores historical and socio-political themes, in particular, topics related to the Vietnam War. Doing so, Vō uses photographs, documents, and found objects with an emotional or historical significance, postmodern appropriation of works by other artists — often in an eclectic manner — questioning issues concerning identity, authorial status, ownership, and the function or role of personal relationships.[2] The artist explores fragmentation, the discrepancy between reality, fiction, and memory.

Vō has been one of the world’s leading artists for a decade now, in particular since winning the Hugo Boss Prize in 2012. He has had major solo and group shows in Germany, the United States, France, and elsewhere. The most important show was at the 55th Venice Biennale in 2013, shortly after winning the Hugo Boss Prize. Other important shows were at the Museo Nacional Centre de Arte Reina Sofie in Madrid and the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York, the United States. His works feature in major public and private collections such as the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York, the Marciano Art Foundation in Los Angeles and the Museion in Bolzano, Italy. Vō ends up in the seventieth place on the Artfacts top 100 list and ranks top 10 in Denmark.[3] As a result, he is featured in our article The Most Influential Young Artists Today.

Artworks

Danh Vō, Installation view at Venice Biennale, 2019. Courtesy of Marian Goodman.

Danh Vō, Promised Land, 2018. Graphite, writing by Phung Vo – variable dimensions. Courtesy of Marian Goodman.

Danh Vō, Take my Breath Away, 2017. Marble fragment from a standing male statue “Leg and Feet”, Western Europe, Roman Empire, 2nd century A.D. – 28 5/16 x 21 1/4 x 16 1/2 in. (72 x 54 x 42 cm). Courtesy of Marian Goodman.

Danh VōThe End, 2014. Ink drawing and gold leaf on cardboard Budweiser box – 40 × 40 × 27 cm / 15 11⁄16 × 15 11⁄16 × 10 5⁄8 inches. Courtesy of Xavier Hufkens.

Danh Vō’It’s just not a waiting room’, 2013. Bronze (edition of 6 + 2 AP) – 74 × 105 × 106 cm / 29 × 41 1⁄8 × 41 1⁄4 inches. Courtesy of Xavier Hufkens.

Dahn Vō, We The People (Detail), 2011. Hammered copper — 202.5 × 234 × 137 cm / 79 7/10 × 92 1/10 × 53 9/10 in. Courtesy of Attika Fine Arts, London.

Dahn Vō, She was more like a beauty queen from a movie scene, 2009. Variable objects on flag — 96.5 × 54.5 cm / 38 × 21 1/2 in. Courtesy of Guggenheim Museum, New York.

Dahn Vō, Oma Totem, 2009. (Installation view: Last Fuck, 01 Milano, 2009). Courtesy of Punta della Dogana, Venice.

Notes:

[1] Marian Goodman, Danh Vo at https://www.mariangoodman.com/artists/68-danh-vo/ consulted 17/09/2020.
[2] Xavier Hufkens, Danh Vō at https://www.xavierhufkens.com/artists/danh-vo consulted 17/09/2020.
[3] Artfacts, Danh Vō at https://artfacts.net/artist/danh-vo/51015 consulted 25/11/2020.

Last Updated on May 2, 2023

Sylvia Walker

Sylvia Walker (b. 1986, US) is an art historian, essayist, art critic, and curator. After contributing to numerous publications, and curating exhibitions in the United States of America and beyond, she currently works as the assistant director of Contemporary Art Issue (CAI).

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