'Homefront (relief sculpture)', demin, nest, school bus body, baby-feeding nipples, 48 x 48 inches

ATLANTA, GA.- Kiang Gallery presents an installation of unique new prints, sculpture, and installation works by Vietnamese born American artist, Hoang Van Bui,This will be his fourth solo show at the gallery, his first since 2004, "Homefronts III: Born-Again", explores complex issues of culture and identity, combining traditional sculpting materials and gathered objects. Van-Bui coaxes meaning out of exquisitely rendered materials, based on culturally specific symbols, such as the navel, which to Vietnamese is the physical center of human emotion, much like the heart to Westerners, searching for the emotional ground he calls home. His process often forces incompatible materials into elegant harmonious compositions, reminding us that this is a poignant self –portrait.

Hoang Van-Bui is the fifth son of a family, whose ancestors came from the village of Dong Xuyen (northeast Vietnam), Kien An Province. According to renewed birth records, Van-Bui was born on June 15, 1967 at new Dong Xuyen Village (northeast-Mekong Delta), Binh Thuan Province. On June 15, 1975. Van-Bui immigrated to the United States and became a citizen on April 10, 1987.

On 1986, on scholarship, he entered college at the University of Tampa and graduated with highest art honors on August 14, 1990. In 1992, he accepted scholarships to the University of Georgia Graduate School and graduated at the top of the graduate program on March 7, 1995. While in graduate school, he was selected to independently teach various metal processes, including bronze casting and was honored with an unprecedented thesis research grant for overseas study.

In 1993, Bui was one of two sculptors invited to speak at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington D.C. He also exhibited an installation in the institution's national traveling exhibition for 36 months. Also in 1993, Van-Bui was selected as the speaker for the National Save Outdoor Sculpture (GA SOS) program. In the 1996 Centennial Olympic Games in Atlanta, he was one of eight artists selected to exhibit in the Cultural Olympiad Exhibition called 'Out of Bounds', an exhibit which was selected as the 'Best Olympic Art Exhibit' by Atlanta Magazine. With the invitation from the Ministry of Culture of Vietnam, Van-Bui was one of two American sculptors to attend the 1998 International Invitational Sculpture Symposium in Vietnam--a six-week sculpture workshop/exchange forum that included 30 sculptors from fifteen nations. From this dialogue, Van-Bui donated the large outdoor bronze sculpture to the people of Hue Province. In early 1999, Van-Bui, with the endorsement of the Chancellor of the Ministry of Culture's International Arts Program was invited to Berlin to do an on-site installation at the Haus Der Kulturen Der Welt for an exhibition of 16 artists from the Americas, Europe, and Asia.

Van-Bui’s work has been exhibited at the Frost Museum, Miami, FL, Cartier Foundation in Paris, France, Museum of Contemporary Art of Rome, Italy, Contemporary Art Museum of Zagreb, Croatia, Tate Modern, London, England, Hirshhorn Museum, Washington D.C., The Hillside Terrance in Shibuya, Tokyo, Japan, School of Visual Arts, New York, NY, USA, the Rubin Museum of Art, New York, NY, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, San Francisco, CA, Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego, La Jolla, CA, Loyola University Museum of Art, Chicago, IL, -U.C.L.A. Fowler Museum of Cultural History, Lost Angeles, CA, Newhouse Center For Contemporary Art, Staten Island, New York, American Museum of Natural History, New York City, Hue Festival International Sculpture Symposium, Hue City, VN, International Invitational Exhibition, with a residency to work on site: “Gap VN”, Haus Der Kulturen Der Welt, Berlin, Germany , International Invitational Sculpture Symposium, a forum of 30 sculptors from 14 countries, Organized by UNESCO, & Funded in part by the Ford Foundation, IAP, NY City AC Council/American Steel/UT Friends of Galleries, Hue, VN, Nexus Contemporary Art Center, Atlanta, GA, The 1996 Centennial Olympic Games Cultural Olympiad Exhibition. “Out of Bounds, the Nexus Contemporary Art Center, Atlanta, GA, USA, SITE’S Invitational Exhibition, the Smithsonian Institution by the Rockefeller Foundation & the Smithsonian Educational Outreach Fund. Washington DC, Hanoi Institute of Art (L’Ecole des Beaux-Arts de l’Indochine, 1925), Hanoi, VN

'Unfamiliar Prayer,' 2000, incense, bronze bell, gong, mourning cloth, 18 x 10 x 1 feet

'Home of the Brave, #3,' 2000. bronze, tar, 15 x 15 x1 inches

'Homefront'. beeswax, black ink. 48 x 48 inches

Installation views