Biography
1966 Born in Hanoi, Vietnam
1989-1994 Training at the Hanoi Fine Arts University
B.A. in Sculpture
Represented by Art Vietnam Gallery, Hanoi, Vietnam
SOLO EXHIBITIONS
1999 Exhibition at Hanoi Fine Arts univerity
2002 Exhibition at Iskandar Gallery in Paris, France
2003 Exhibition at Iskandar Gallery in Paris, France
2004 The Sculpture World of Dinh Cong Dat, Art Vietnam Gallery, Hanoi, Vietnam
2004 Masks, Mai’s Gallery, Saigon, Vietnam
2007 New works of Dinh Cong Dat, organized by JP Morgan Bank, Hanoi Metropole, Hanoi, Vietnam
2009 The sculpture work of Dinh Cong Dat at Tokyo American Club, Tokyo Japan
GROUP EXHIBITIONS
1993 3rd National Sculpture Exhibition, Hanoi, Vietnam
1990-1995 National Art Exhibition in 1990 and 1995, Vietnam
1999 Sculpture Exhibition of 9 Sculptors, Ho Chi Minh City Museum, Vietnam
Sculpture Exhibition of 12 sculptors, Vietnam Fine Art Museum, Hanoi, Vietnam
2000 Visual Art Exhibition of 12 young artists, Hanoi Contemporary Art Center, Hanoi, Vietnam
Lamp Exhibition of together with 24 sculptors at the studio of artist Anh Khanh, Hanoi
Organized and participated in the Sculpture Exhibition for Young sculptors, VietnamFineArt Museum
2001 Visual Art Exhibition at the Hanoi Contemporary Art Center, Hanoi, Vietnam
10 Artists Workshop in Mao Khe – Quang Ninh, Hanoi, Vietnam
Contemporary Sculpture Exhibition, Contemporary Art Center, Hanoi, Vietnam
2002 Biennale Liverpool Exhibition, Liverpool City, UK
2004 Kitch, Chim sao, Hanoi, Vietnam Newspapers Have No Meaning, Installation at Cave Gallery, NYC, USA
2005 The Ten Courts of the Kings of Hell, Bankside Gallery, London UK
2006 The Ten Courts of the Kings of Hell, Fielding Lecht Gallery, Austin – Texas, US
2007 Oriental Colors, Red Gallery, Dubai, UAE
2009 Art Vietnam gallery HanoiVietnam
MISCALLEN
2000 Prof Design for “Hat Mua Roi Bao Lau”
2007 Stage Design, Hair Fashion Show Event by Dep Magazine, Hanoi
Stage Design, Multimedia Show by Nokia, Hanoi, Vietnam
2008 Stage design, the day of Versace in Vietnam Hermes display in Hanoi
AWARDS AND SCHOLARSHIPS
1993 Participated in the 3rd National Sculpture Exhibition (organized once every 10 years from 1973 in Hanoi). Awarded the 1st National prize.
RESIDENCIES AND WORKSHOPS
2000 Workshop at the Liverpool Biennale, Liverpool
2002 3 month residency in Paris, France
2002 3 month residency in Cave, Brooklyn, New York
2007 6 months residency in Chang Dong studio, Seoul, Korea
2009 2 months workshop at the China biennale, BeijingChina
2009 3 weeks at ART OMI, New York
Dinh Cong Dat
The Newspaper Has No Meaning
Dinh Cong Dat began his Vietnamese army service in 1984, just before he turned eighteen. 212 was the number of his unit. Since 2000, the 212 sequence has evolved into a recurring tag or signature, Dinh has painted it on gallery walls, across the faces of his figurative sculptures, and in site-specific installations. But, he says, “this number basically has no meaning, absolutely no logic; it is a stupid number. It’s empty. People look at artwork and ask about the meaning, but art has no special, fixed meaning. People have their own lives, they are born and die, and it has no great meaning—it is quiet. Normal.”
The 212 variations are part of Dinh’s series The Newspaper Has No Meaning; in other iterations the exhibition space is wallpapered with newspapers. Like army-unit numbers, language defines groups; it can enclose a nation or a people, or it can be a barrier to keep cultural others out. Media is ubiquitous, but, for Dinh, “we understand nothing, even though a lot of information is around. Media covers the world, but it has no meaning. 212 or ABC, it is the same.”
The Newspaper Has No Meaning is not nihilistic, however, in that its patterned emptiness makes a container for the viewer’s associations. Birthdates, access codes, or a play on digital ones and zeros may come to mind. New York audiences might see the names of Columbia County routes around Art Omi, the Manhattan area code, or Brooklyn zip codes; when Dinh painted a shed at a coal mine in Vietnam, the miners read the sequence as a reference to the festival day of Ngày Kí Niêm, “The Anniversary of Coal Miners,” which commemorates a 1936 general strike and is celebrated on December 11 (12.11). “I love for people to follow their own ideas,” Dinh observes. “If my work is good, I will say nothing.”
