The Artist

1959 Gueret, France

Eric Leroux is a French teacher and self-taught artist. He worked at the French Cultural Centre (Alliance Française) in Hanoi from 1992 to 1998. Being a knowledgeable, creative, and sociable person, he had significant influence on artists in Hanoi who in the early 1990s still had limited access to information on contemporary art outside Vietnam. Leroux introduced to many artists the idea of a ‘collaborative form of art’. He also shared his insights in regards to organizing exhibitions and art performances. During his stay in Hanoi he maintained close ties with Salon Natasha, facilitating the management of the art space. Most of the exhibitions were conceptualized and organized (until the late 1990s the word “curate” was still unknown in Vietnam) by Natasha and Eric.

The artist’s first solo exhibition, April 15th -30th, 1994 at Salon Natasha was organized by Leroux himself, since Vu Dan Tan and Natasha Kraevskaia were prohibited to enter Vietnam after their trip to Russia and France because of visa problems. The first group exhibition in Salon Natasha in 1994 was titled Red and Yellow in which Eric also showed some of his personal artwork.

The artist’s work tends to be Cubist/abstract with highly stylized figures, ranging from primitive to avant garde. The artist’s European background is evident in his work but he is highly sensitive to the earthy, spiritual and supernatural world of his adoptive country and uses elements of Shamanism, ethnic textiles and other worldly symbols in his work.

The artist participated in several solo and group exhibitions within Vietnam and also internationally in Australia, Finland, France, Japan, Thailand, the USA. He was also involved in some performance art with his artist friends from Hanoi, who also exhibited regularly at Salon Natasha, Vietnam’s first private contemporary art space established in 1990.

Leroux’s works are in various mediums; paper, ceramic, also often using found objects, like his fellow artist friend, Bradford Edwards. Eric, like so many artists in the early 90’s, also spent time at the Bat Trang ceramic village in the outskirts of Hanoi, creating simple but useful works of contemporary ceramic, modeled on old forms but with new contemporary patterns.

Olden Times 1997

An old scavenged cabinet door that the artist salvaged and reworked using inlaid mother of pearl detailing, reminiscent of the cabinetry inlay popular in the old dynasties in Vietnam.