EXHIBITION INFORMATION
📍 Address: 35/8 Nguyễn Văn Đậu, Phường 6, Quận Bình Thạnh, TP. Hồ Chí Minh .
🗓️ Date: from the 4th of May to the 27th of May, 2025
🕒 Openning hours:
- Monday to Thursday : 10AM to 5PM.
- Friday to Sunday: 10AM to 8PM.
The exhibition program has received official approval from the Ho Chi Minh City Department of Culture and Sports: License No. 1136/GP-SVHTT-XDNSVHGĐ (H29.17-250415-0019), issued on April 18, 2025.
EXHIBITION DESCRIPTION
“Current” is an installation exhibition featuring 25 multidisciplinary works by artist Zac Buehner. The exhibition showcases a delicate, rhythmic, and profound interplay of works, space, materials, and light – guiding viewers on an emotional journey that is both personal and captivating. The pieces come in various forms, including paintings, light boxes, paper cuttings, and metalwork—dedicatedly combining all features: bold ideas, precise calculations, skilled techniques, unique aesthetics, and profound thoughts.
Zac Buehner was raised in New York in a family where both parents worked in the arts. This background inspired him from an early age, fostering a passion for art that he pursued as an integral part of his life. In his youth, he achieved some success in his home country, but a desire for personal growth led him to explore opportunities in Asia, eventually settling in Vietnam. The inspiration drawn from the vibrant culture, people, and daily life here serves as a refreshing current that revitalizes his spirit. The body of work created in a modest studio in Binh Thanh District, Ho Chi Minh City, represents a significant turning point in Zac’s artistic journey. Zac wishes to present this series for the first time in Vietnam as a tribute to the land that has renewed his life.
“Current” narrates a story of inner transformation, exploring themes of beautiful memories to profound spiritual loss, and the resilience to overcome challenges while nurturing dreams for the present and the future. The creative installation connects all the pieces in an astonishingly natural way, providing viewers with a dynamic and engaging experience.
Hoa Ta Gallery is proud to introduce this exhibition and hopes to receive your warm welcome and support.
ARTIST STATEMENT
My current work is a reflection on change, from personal growth I’ve experienced, to global shifts we face together. In order to examine the complexities of change I’ve had to accept it as fundamental to our world; to do so I’ve incorporated this into the foundation of my art-making, allowing constant change within my process to be the point.
I’ve learned to follow inspiration intuitively as it flows. The more open I am to where my ideas move, the more varied my art has become. A painting inspires a sculpture and a sculpture inspires a papercut, and so on. What interests me the most is how seemingly disparate objects can be so intrinsically related to each other. In fact each new piece becomes a literal extension of the last one, leaving traces of cause or effect, or becoming a sign that points to the direction where transformation may lead.
As a result of making art in this fluid way, I’ve noticed spiritual and philosophical changes in my thinking that are now material for this evolving body of work. And by working on multiple pieces at once the common threads become more evident. Sometimes the subject emerges literally, contrasting images from my past against images of my life as it is now. Other times it’s arisen symbolically via reference to moving water, cycles, and time. For a broader view I look at the new media sphere that’s propelled us into an increasingly globalized culture. And I play with cutting-edge technologies which, for the first time in our history, are forcing us to adapt to changes now happening at an exponential pace.
This entire body of work naturally ties together as a dynamic experience-based installation, yet each artwork is a discreet piece that can stand alone. The art is open ended, poses questions instead of answers, and offers room for interpretation. It’s an invitation for viewers to reflect on change from their perspective, yet with inspiration from my own.
AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY
- Multidisciplinary artist (visual art, graffiti, music, metal fabrication) active since the late 1990s.
- Raised in NYC, began drawing obsessively as a child, transitioned to graffiti, and emerged in the New York graffiti scene by 1998.
- Earned a BA in Fine Art from Hampshire College (2004), focusing on site-specific installations that blurred traditional exhibition boundaries.
- Passionate about blacksmithing (later a primary career) and music (co-founded Third Person, composed film scores for Word.Life – Tribeca Film Festival 2006).
- Worked as a studio assistant for Tom Friedman (2.5 years), then lived and created in an abandoned Massachusetts factory (8 years), merging art with his struggle with bipolar disorder.
- First major group exhibition at Leila Heller Gallery NYC (2013), with works sold pre-opening; published short story “The Ascent” in Studio International.
- Moved to South Korea (2015), held a solo show “Hide” in Daegu; later relocated to Vietnam.
- Solo debut “enTropical” at Room Saigon (2019), collaborated with Ki Saigon, won London International Award (2021) for “Peace Project”.
EXHIBITION IMAGES
