Quynh Pham, founder of Galerie Quynh: “Respect patience when practising art”

The Vietnamese art scene has clearly evolved with new contemporary spaces emerging, artistic expression becoming more diverse, and a growing collector base beginning to take shape. Speaking more deeply about the international element in this transformation, how should galleries approach the provision of “borderless” art experiences?

Vietnam is not an isolated country but an increasingly vital link in a broader global conversation. And yet, opportunities for Vietnamese audiences to encounter the work of international artists remain limited. Not everyone can simply board a flight to visit world-class institutions like the National Museum of Singapore or M+ in Hong Kong.

While the Internet has certainly “flattened” the global art landscape, no screen can replicate the experience of viewing a work in person. On a screen, we miss the nuances of scale, texture, and material, all of which shape our perception of the piece. This is why we strive to strike a balance: to present Vietnamese art to both local and international audiences, and to bring international works to Vietnam so that local artists and viewers can engage with them directly.

From its beginnings as a non-profit art archive to now an exhibition space, how will Galerie Quynh continue to evolve in the coming years?

It felt like the right moment to make a significant shift in the gallery’s direction. I sensed that both the market and our visitors were ready for something new.

We’re preparing to launch a Young Collectors Circle in Vietnam, an initiative for collectors aged 24 to 40. The aim is to foster a supportive, interconnected ecosystem for young people who are passionate about contemporary art, while encouraging strategic, thoughtful collecting. We plan to host more events both domestically and internationally, including exhibition openings, curated tours, and discussions with collectors, curators, and museum professionals. We are now in the final stages of preparation for a summer launch.

At the same time, Galerie Quynh is expanding its collaborations with other institutions. One example is our joint exhibition with Coca Huynh of Gallery Medium, featuring new work by Ngo Dinh Bao Chau, which is set to open at TDX Ice Factory on Tran Dinh Xu Street in June.

In mid-September, following a solo show by Lien Truong from Chapel Hill at Frieze Seoul, we’ll host an exhibition in Tallinn for Will Thurman, in collaboration with Olga Temnikova, co-founder of Temnikova & Kasela, the leading gallery in Estonia. To promote Will’s show, Olga and I are planning an extended trip and inviting international collectors to join us. I’m genuinely excited by this idea. The exhibition will be the centrepiece, but we’ll also visit private collections and museums, forage for mushrooms in the forest, and cook together in a collector’s home. From there, we’ll take a two-hour ferry from Tallinn to Helsinki to visit the Biennial on Vallisaari Island and explore other collections.

Journeys like this bring people together. They remind us that the impulse to connect with art—and through art, with one another—is deeply human. It transcends culture and geography.

Can you share more about the curatorial direction of the exhibition “21 Years of Galerie Quynh”, currently taking place at Galerie Quynh? What does Galerie Quynh hope to convey through this exhibition?

For this exhibition, I reached out to Thai Ha, a young curator and formerly Assistant Curator at Galerie Quynh. I believe curators are creative figures in their own right, and their practice also deserves space to grow. That’s why I invited Thai Ha to curate freely, to create a show that speaks to her vision, while also reflecting on the two decades we’ve built together and hinting at what might lie ahead for the gallery and the wider art community. Thai Ha rose to the challenge beautifully.

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Most recently, Galerie Quynh received the Frieze Seoul Stand 2024 award with Tuan Andrew Nguyen’s sculptures displayed at Frieze Seoul. What does this award mean to Galerie Quynh in particular, and to Vietnamese art more broadly?

Galerie Quynh’s presence at Frieze Seoul was, above all, about representing Vietnam. As a Vietnamese gallery, we stood alongside, and competed directly with, some of the most respected galleries in the region and the world.

For the exhibition, we presented four kinetic sculptures by Tuan Andrew Nguyen. It was a bold choice. Frieze Seoul, at its core, remains a commercial fair, and sculpture is notoriously more difficult to sell than two-dimensional works. Yet it was precisely that choice that made the award so meaningful. Receiving the top prize validated our risk and reflected the same spirit that has sustained us over the past 21 years. While many cultural organisations have faded over time, we have held our ground.

Twenty-one years of running Galerie Quynh must have come with challenges. Looking back, is there a memory that stands out the most?

One memory has always stayed with me, my return to Vietnam in the late 1990s. At the time, I had almost nothing. But the artists of Saigon welcomed me with open arms. The first I met was Nguyen Thanh Binh, at the Ho Chi Minh City Fine Arts Association on Pasteur Street in District 1. He introduced me to other artists born in the 1940s, ’50s and ’60s, many of whom I still admire deeply. It’s remarkable to think that I am now working with some of their children, like Do Thanh Lang and Nguyen Kim To Lan.

When I first came back, I had few belongings. I sold my old BMW in San Diego just to afford the plane ticket. Nguyen Thanh Binh gave me an old refrigerator. To Lan, Cuong, Tuong and Tien offered chopsticks and bowls, small gestures that helped me start a new life in Vietnam. I remain profoundly grateful for the friendships that have carried me through these two decades.

This article was adapted from the original feature published in the print edition of Tatler Vietnam, May 2025.

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