The Artist

1958 Canada

Brian Ring first came to live in Hanoi in 1996 and quickly became involved with Salon Natasha, Vietnam’s first private contemporary art space established in 1990 by the late artist Vu Dan Tan (1946-2009) and his Russian wife Natalia (Natasha) Kraevskaia. This was the art space that all creatives gravitated to when they first came to town.

Proclaiming its main goal as freedom of expression, during its almost two decades of activities, Salon Natasha organized around one hundred artistic events extending from curated exhibitions to creative collaborations, spontaneous performances and international exchanges. Many of the country’s leading contemporary artists started their career at Salon Natasha. Brian was one of a few foreign artists living and working in Hanoi in the early 90’s, and along with Finnish artist Maritta Nurmi and American artist Bradford Edwards, Brian helped organize and curate shows, liaison with artists and overall, helped to build the contemporary art community.

Ring’s first exhibition in Hanoi was in 1997 at the Trang An Gallery, a solo show that also marked the beginning of his explorations with digital technology. Later he would be presented at Salon Natasha in a group exhibition of artists who had all made work together at Bat Trang, the ceramic village on the outskirts of Hanoi. Ring continued to exhibit and help the gallery until he left Vietnam in 2013.

Ring was an indefatigable supporter of artists and the arts of Vietnam. In 2007 he created the Hanoi Grapevine as a one-man blog on WordPress by artist Brian Ring. It has since been developed by him and his team. Today Hanoi Grapevine is a widely respected website, a reliable news source for tens of thousands of people with information received from the event organizers.

Ring was in several group exhibitions with Vietnamese artists that traveled to Australia, Finland, Germany. At this point, Ring no longer lives in Vietnam but he continues to visit, assist artists and enjoy the creative life in Vietnam.