danh vo
1975, Bà Ria, Vietnam
Through a body of personal work inspired also by historical and political events, Danh Vo probes into the inheritance and construction of cultural conflicts, traumas, and values. When Vo was a child, his family fled Vietnam and settled in Denmark: their assimilation to European culture and the political events that prompted their flight are intrinsic to his artistic investigations. His work sheds light on the relation between the inseparable elements that shape our sense of self, both through collective history and private experience. Exhibiting objects based on the ready-made principle is a characteristic artistic strategy of Danh Vo; through objects charged with symbolism that retains the sublimated desire and sadness of individuals and entire cultures, he examines how meaning changes with context. Danh Vo’s work, enigmatic and poetic, deftly avoids didacticism as he explores the power structures behind liberal societies and the fragility of our nation-state notions.
Danh Vo studied at KADK – The Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts in Denmark and at the Städelschule in Frankfurt, Germany. He was awarded the ARKEN Art Prize in 2015, the Hugo Boss Prize in 2012, and the Blauorange Kunstpreis by the Deutsche Volksbanken and Raiffeisenbanken in 2007, and was nominated for the Preis der Nationalgalerie für junge Kunst in Germany in 2009.
beauty queen (in process), 2013
beauty queen (in process), 2013
beauty queen (in process), 2013
beauty queen (in process), 2013
beauty queen (in process), 2013
beauty queen (in process), 2013
beauty queen (in process), 2013
beauty queen (in process), 2013
beauty queen (in process), 2013
beauty queen (in process), 2013
beauty queen (in process), 2013
beauty queen (in process), 2013
beauty queen, 2013
200 year old vietnam colonial era church fragments
installation view of the encyclopedic palace, 55 venice biennale, palazzo enciclopedico, 2013
beauty queen, 2013
installation view de dahn võ, museo jumex, mexico city, 2014
beauty queen, 2013
installation view of danh võ, museo jumex, mexico city, 2014
beauty queen, 2013
installation view of dahn võ, museo jumex, mexico city, 2014
Solo exhibitions include: All that prevents you from leaving, all that is your enemy, Kunsthal 44Møen, Askeby, Denmark (2026); Danh Vo, Fondazione Nicola Del Roscio, Rome (2026); πνεῦμα (Ἔλισσα), Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam (2026); Akari by Noguchi, as part of Danh Vo In Situ, M+, Hong Kong, China (2024); Danh Vo, kurimanzutto, Mexico City (2024); Mexico City-Güldenhof, as part of Kunstenfestivaldesarts, Brussels, Belgium (2024); a cloud and flowers, Mudam Luxembourg (two-person exhibition with Isamu Noguchi) (2021); Danh Vo oV hnaD, The National Museum of Art, Osaka, Japan (2020); Danh Vo, kurimanzutto, Mexico City (2019); untitled, South London Gallery (2019); Danh Vo, CAPC musée d’art contemporain de Bordeaux, France (2018); Take My Breath Away, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York (2018); traveled to National Gallery of Denmark (SMK), Copenhagen, Denmark (2018); Ng Teng Fong Roof Garden Commission: Danh Vo, National Gallery Singapore (2016); We The People, Aspen Art Museum, Colorado (2016); Banish the Faceless / Reward your Grace, Palacio de Cristal del Retiro, Museo Reina Sofía, Madrid (2015); Ydob eht ni mraw si ti, Museum Ludwig, Cologne, Germany (2015); Wad al-hayara, Museo Jumex, Mexico City (2014); We The People, commissioned by Public Art Fund for Brooklyn Bridge Park and City Hall Park, New York (2014); We The People (detail), Faurschou Foundation Beijing, China (2014); Log Dog, kurimanzutto, Mexico City (2013); Go Mo Ni Ma Da, Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris (2013); I M U U R 2 (Hugo Boss Prize), Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York (2013); We The People (detail), Art Institute of Chicago, Illinois (2012); Vo Danh, Kunsthaus Bregenz, Austria (2012); JULY, IV, MDCCLXXVI, Kunsthalle Fridericianum, Kassel, Germany (2011); Hip Hip Hurra, National Gallery of Denmark (SMK), Copenhagen, Denmark (2010); Where the Lions Are, Kunsthalle Basel, Switzerland (2009); Les fleurs d’intérieur, KADIST, Paris (2009); Package Tour, Stedelijk Museum CS, Amsterdam (2008), among others.
Group exhibitions include: Broken. The Power of the Fragment, Palazzo Strozzi, Florence, Italy (2026); A Secret Garden, kurimanzutto, Mexico City (2026); Clair-obscur, Bourse de Commerce—Pinault Collection, Paris (2026); Copistes, Centre Pompidou-Metz, France (2025); Viaje a la luna, CCA Wattis Institute for Contemporary Arts, San Francisco (2025); traveled to Centro Federico García Lorca, Granada, Spain (2025); When You See Me: Visibility in Contemporary Art/History, Dallas Museum of Art (DMA), Texas (2024); Colección Jumex: Al filo de la navaja, Museo Jumex, Mexico City (2020); Notre monde brûle, Palais de Tokyo, Paris (2020); Stories of Almost Everyone, Hammer Museum, Los Angeles (2018); Travelers: Stepping into the Unknown, The National Museum of Art, Osaka, Japan (2018); Versus Rodin: bodies across space and time, Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide, Australia (2017); Scham. 100 Gründe, rot zu werden, Deutsches Hygiene Museum, Dresden, Germany (2016); Question the Wall Itself, Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, Minnesota (2016); Sculpture on the Move 1946–2016, Kunstmuseum Basel | Gegenwart, Switzerland (2016); The Precarious, The Menil Collection, Houston, Texas (2015); Collected by Thea Westreich Wagner and Ethan Wagner, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York (2015); traveled to Centre Pompidou, Paris (2016); Magnificent Obsessions: The Artist as Collector, Barbican Centre, London (2015); Eroi, GAM – Galleria Civica d’Arte Moderna e Contemporanea, Turin, Italy (2011); That’s the Way We Do It, Kunsthaus Bregenz, Austria (2011); Morality – Act II: From Love to Legal, Witte de With Center for Contemporary Art, Rotterdam, the Netherlands (2009); Preis der Nationalgalerie für junge Kunst 2009, Hamburger Bahnhof – Nationalgalerie der Gegenwart, Berlin (2009); The California Files: Re-Viewing Side Effects of Cultural Memory, CCA Wattis Institute for Contemporary Arts, San Francisco (2007), among others.
Vo has participated in many international biennials, including: May You Live In Interesting Times, 58th International Art Exhibition at the Venice Biennale (2019); mothertongue, Danish Pavilion at the 56th Venice Biennale (2015); The past, the present, the possible, Sharjah Biennial 12, United Arab Emirates (2015); 8. Berlin Biennale (2014); Whitney Biennial 2014, New York (2014); Il Palazzo Enciclopedico, 55th International Art Exhibition at the Venice Biennale (2013); 2012 New Museum Triennial: The Ungovernables, New York (2012); Open House, SB2011 Singapore Biennale (2011); 10,000 Lives, 8th Gwangju Biennale, South Korea (2010); was draußen wartet, 6. Berlin Biennale (2010); Manifesta 7, The European Biennial of Contemporary Art, Trento, Italy (2008), among others.
read the full article of danh vo's exhibition on artnews
Danh Vo was invited by the Real Maestranza de Caballería de Sevilla to create the 2022 version of the official poster for the bullfighting festival Feria de Sevilla.
Read the full article on how Danh Vo explores cultural conflict, trauma, and values through his work in The Collectors Agenda.
Read full article on Danh Vo's exhibition at secession, Vienna at Art Daily.
Read the full review on how Danh Vo reinterpreted Nanna Ditzel's Kvadrat Sisu fabric at Wallpaper Magazine.
The Willfulness of Objects presents a selection of works from The Bass’ collection, many newly acquired, by artists who utilize found, altered, recycled, or transformed everyday objects as their materials to explore facets of human nature, history, and the surrounding environment.
On the Razor’s Edge is an international exhibition that brings together works within four thematic sections: migration and liberty; the human body; its environment; and the irrepressible and forever incomplete passage of time.
This long-awaited first solo exhibition at a Japanese art museum presents a comprehensive picture of Danh Vo which features approximately 40 pieces including new and recent ones, among them a collaborative project with the family of the late US Defense Secretary Robert McNamara.
This exhibition continues the largely conceptual practice of Danh Vo in which he interweaves fragments of archives and personal references, often evoking experiences of migration and integration to destabilize the entrenched structures of legitimacy within citizenship and identification.
A first presentation will be displayed in Mudam’s Sculpture Garden, from 20 April to 25 August 2019, with a selection of emblematic works by the artist Danh Vo from Pinault Collection. This conversation between the two collections is the result of close consultation with Danh Vo and Caroline Bourgeois, curator of Pinault Collection.
Danh Vo reveals the invisible systems that work behind the scenes to ensure the smooth running of the house, as well as the conservation efforts made by its staff.
Noguchi for Danh Vo: Counterpoint presents works of art and design by celebrated modern sculptor Isamu Noguchi (American, 1904-1988) in dialogue with the work of Danh Vo (Danish, born Vietnam, 1975).
Danh Vō: Take My Breath Away arranged by Statens Museum for Kunst in co-operation with The Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation in New York, shows the most comprehensive overview ever presented on Danish soil of the work of one of the greatest contemporary artists of Denmark.
