Installation view of RICHARD STREITMATTER–TRAN’s “Departures” at de Sarthe Gallery, Hong Kong, 2017. Courtesy de Sarthe Gallery.
De Sarthe Gallery’s Hong Kong outpost presented “Departures,” a solo show by Vietnamese artist Richard Streitmatter-Tran that also exhibited artworks by 20th-century modernists from his homeland. Born in 1972 in Bien Hoa, a city situated about 30 kilometers east of Ho Chi Minh City, Streitmatter-Tran’s solo and collaborative works have been exhibited internationally, notably in Palais de Tokyo in 2015 and the 52nd Venice Biennale ten years ago. But this was Streitmatter-Tran’s debut in Hong Kong, and also the first time that a Vietnamese collection of such a scale—with 55 art-pieces in total on show—was presented in the city.
Je Seung Lee 