Nguyễn Duy Mạnh: First Bone, Then Skin... Phách Lạc (Lost Spirits) I, 2018 - ongoing, details, hand-painted ceramics fired in Bat Trang village. Image courtesy of the artist and Galerie Bao.
“ His visceral ceramics, often marked by scratches, wounds, and sutures, expose the hidden anguish of a country still grappling with its past. For him, clay is a living body — one that breathes, remembers, and bears witness. “
- Hung Duong
Nguyễn Duy Mạnh (b. 1984, Vĩnh Phúc) lives and works in Hanoi. His practice is rooted in a deep sensitivity to materials — clay, fabric, wood, and found objects — which he transforms into vessels of memory and witnesses of Vietnam’s history. Since 2017, he has been working with ceramics in Bát Tràng pottery village, where he experiments with traditional techniques to create hauntingly visceral works. Plates and vases appear scratched, carved, or peeled to reveal crimson wounds; ceramic fragments are mounted like skins; dinner tables turn into banquets of loss and remembrance. Through these works, Mạnh explores the vulnerability of cultural values in the face of modernization and consumerism, exposing both trauma and resilience. His art critiques the disintegration of tradition while quietly offering gestures of repair — sutured wounds that embody a fragile hope for healing.
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