Phạm Trần Việt Nam was born in Đà Nẵng and graduated from the Ho Chi Minh City Fine Arts University in 2010. Though initially trained in sculpture, his practice mostly revolves around painting, especially oil painting on canvas. Greatly influenced by rock music and expressionism, his early visual compositions appear tormented, as if engulfed in  flame, focusing on peeling apart and exposing each dark corner of rage and violence inside the human mind. From 2014, after overcoming a struggling period of depression, he decided to reinvent himself by dethroning everything that he used to put on a high pedestal, firstly by shredding his old paintings and restructuring the pieces into new works. Nam’s creations convey a message concerning humanity which stems from compassion and his reactions to the perils of the current social context in Vietnam. Art to him is not just labor, but also ‘a compulsive behavior of a mind in discord’ – a state that at times compels anger but at times remains patient and meditative. 

Text by VCAD based on information from the APD Center’s website.