My art primarily features animals and nature, yet I’m not a naturalist, the work is about us, our stories. The news, our loudest narrator, is dominated by upheaval and mass exodus, the issue of asylum seekers has been politicised, the human is forgotten, their stories swept aside. Brutal images stay with us, erode our souls.… Continue reading
Continue reading“Anima is the breath of life. The vital force. The soul.
My art primarily features animals and nature, yet I’m not a naturalist, the work is about us, our stories. The news, our loudest narrator, is dominated by upheaval and mass exodus, the issue of asylum seekers has been politicised, the human is forgotten, their stories swept aside. Brutal images stay with us, erode our souls.
This exhibition explores a part of my story: my family’s history, the conflicts that drove my parents to seek asylum in Australia. My father left China in the 40’s because of World War 2. Then he and my mother, having always known war in Vietnam, were forced to flee with my family in the late 70’s. They are survivors. Their story has always been a cycle of conflict, win/loss, renewal. A fight to survive.
The impetus for this particular body of work came from my wife’s writing:
we are just
little clouds
of flesh and blood
forming and
dissipating
easily as mist
we dream of
solidity, eternity
as we disappear
on the morning breeze
Figures push into new territory, fighting for ground, but the abyss, dominating, bends everything to its will. This show examines the human desire to endure and be a part of something permanent. This longing manifests in many ways; we create art, construct monuments, we preserve, and even bring new life into existence. But art fades, buildings crumble and people perish. It is an illusion of permanence, the fragility of everything is the reason we find things extraordinary.
Memento mori’s are supposed to keep us humble, to remind us that death comes for us all, but I like the flip side of that. We have a finite amount of time, so even if the abyss eventually wins, memento anima, remember to live, remember your true self, fight for it.”
– Datsun Tran
BORN 1980 Melbourne, Australia
STUDIES
Creative Advertising, RMIT
BACKGROUND
Tran is a first generation Australian from a refugee family who, as a child, had predetermined career choices that were medicine, law, accounting or engineering.
Pivotal in Datsun Tran’s decision to become an artist, was an animated feature of George Orwell’s Animal Farm that he viewed at the age of 9. Datsun Tran says “I was transfixed. It was the first time I had watched something entertaining that felt weighty; there was something behind all those talking animals. Something that reminded me of us”. Tran has since used animal imagery in his art, extensively.
Tran uses animal imagery an exploration of human nature through symbolism and metaphor, and the search for the sublime. He explores these themes through animals for their lack of sex, race and status. He believes they are a mirror for ourselves.
SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2016 Anima, Trevor Victor Harvey Gallery, Sydney
2015 Beautiful Fierce, Bromley & Co, Melbourne
2013 My Life in a Glass Case, Platform Art Space, Melbourne
2012 Echoes from a Future Dream, Paintbox Fine Art, Canberra,
2011 Before The Scream, Magazine Gallery, Adelaide
Menagerie, Gomersal Wines SALA, Barossa Valley
2006 Recent Works, Grace Emily Gallery, Adelaide
SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2015 Australian Landscape, Alex McCulloch Art, Mount Macedon
2014 Grand Opening, Bromley & Co, Melbourne
Cabaret Festival, Adelaide Festival Centre, Adelaide
The Storytellers, Adelaide Town Hall, Adelaide
Enigma 23, Arts SA, Adelaide
Small Wonders, Amelia Johnson Contemporary, Hong Kong
2012 Londinium, Rebecca Hossack Gallery, London
2011 Winged Things, Rebecca Hossack Gallery, New York
Small Wonder 2011, Paintbox Fine Art, Canberra
Birds and Trees, Rebecca Hossack Gallery, London
Red Dot Group Show, 19 Karen, Gold Coast
Another Time Another Place, Bromley Arcade, Sydney
2010 Small Wonder, Paintbox Fine Art, Canberra
2009 Painting 09B, Brunswick Street Gallery, Melbourne
Curated by David Bromley, Hill Smith Gallery, Adelaide
Small Works, Brunswick Street Gallery, Melbourne
2007 Recent Works, Studio Barcelona, Adelaide
Recent Works, Zohara Gallery, Adelaide
2001 Sequentialism, Mansour + Hill Galleries, Melbourne
PRIZES & AWARDS
2015 Whyalla Art Prize (finalist)
Emma Hack Art Prize (finalist)
2014 Hornsby Art Prize (Finalist)
Linden Contemporary Postcard Show (finalist)
Fisher’s Ghost Art Award (finalist)
Percival Portrait Painting Prize (finalist)
Emma Hack Art Prize (finalist)
Adelaide Parklands Art Prize (finalist)
Rick Amor Frawing Prize (finalist)
2013 Doug Moran National Portrait Prize (semi-finalist)
TedXBrisbane (artist in residence)
Fleurieu Art Prize (water and environment finalist)
RSASA Portrait Prize (semi finalist)
Lethbridge 10000 (finalist)
2012 61st Blake Prize (Director’s cut exhibition)
2011 Waterhouse Art Prize (finalist & highly commended)
2010 Adelaide Perry Drawing Prize (finalist)
2008 Victorian Salon de Refuses – Hidden faces of the Archibald
Harvey Galleries was founded by the Harvey family in 1994 with an eye to establish a dynamic and inclusive contemporary art space on the North Shore of Sydney. For almost three decades we have expanded our reach to over three gallery locations and an ever expanding stable of the best artists Australia has to offer.
Harvey Galleries acknowledges the traditional custodians of the lands upon which our galleries stand. The Guringai people (Seaforth), the Gadigal people of the Eora Nation (Sydney), and the Bunurong Boon Wurrung and Wurundjeri Woi Wurrung peoples of the Eastern Kulin Nation (Melbourne).
We pay our respect to Elders past and present.
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