“We wish the war would end” — 3D Virtual Gallery by Tommy Nghiem-Le

Artworks in this gallery

• Lee Jung-seob, A Bull, 1953. oil on paper,w40.7 x h28.8 cm (2026) — The bull is painted with the muscles painted harshly with black strokes to emphasize on the muscles, yet the bull’s body language betrays something of fragility of despair. A bull who is in strength and despair. A Bull is a powerful symbolic showcase of the psychological toll of war. The contrast of the black and white bull and the blue surroundings isn’t just for aesthetics, but is a way to showcase grief. The blue eats the bull showing the isolating feeling of living in a war-torn country that was Korea at the time. The isolated feeling doesn’t come from nothing, it was the decision to separate from his family and stay in Korea while his family moves to Japan. War is often depicted to be in a big scale fight, the sweeping narratives of big countries going after another. In this case it's different, the big scale collapses into Lee perspective and the cost of war. Powerful on the outside, but quietly devastated on the inside.
• Tran Trung Tin, Girl with Gun, 1972. oil on newspaper, 55 x 28.80 cm (2026) — The reality of a young girl who lived a normal life now has to hold a gun is truly devastating. The simple dots on the face of the girl with the gun wrapped around her body and the simple colors tells us the humanization of the person who has to fight for their home and is now taken away from civilian life and has to use a gun to protect her homeland. Tran’s ability to see the people for who they truly are instead of just resistance fighters shows it here. The history of Tran is fascinating as he came from the French resistance generation then grew into the American resistance generation. The ability to show the despair to such a young person who has so much for her future just to be subsided by having to protect your country is shown here with the face, just simple dots on the girl with the guns face already does more to show the human side of someone. The gun is a symbol of having to do what's right to protect a place that you call home. Tran is a man who grew up in Vietnam's most turbulent times, living in 2 invasions and not being able to paint during those times, now has the ability to and it is shown here where he painted showing the humanity of people who fought in wars.
• Iri & Toshi Maruki, The Hiroshima Panels, Fire, 1952. Sumi ink, pigment, glue, charcoal or conté on paper, 180 × 720 cm (2026) — The movement from work we can see the details slowly become less and less from left to right with the red from the left begins to be mushed together with the black ink at the end, with bodies becoming less detailed as we move to the right. This is a significant reminder that actions of big scale war can cause the deeply slow death of people. A mother holds onto her child dying engulfed in flames, afraid of the thought of leaving her child out on the streets. This was a story told by the Maruki’s and what they experienced during the Hiroshima bombings. The slow engulf in flames says it all for the experience of the bombings. Actions like a bomb people think are slow and quick, but the truth is that it isn’t each panel in this work is slow and painful with bodies becoming more and more disjointed and melted showing the slow and painful death of people. This work is a first person point of view of what had happened that day in Hiroshima and is to show the big scale of this and the truth of Hiroshima bombings.
• Dinh Q Le , Light and Belief, 2012. 100 set of drawings (pencil, water color, ink, oil on paper), video, color, sound, Dimension variable, video: 35 min (2026) — The pictures are framed with sketches and paintings of people who were artists during Vietnam. There were over 50 white framed works on the wall connected as a unity. Next to the wall was a projected interview with those artists who did those framed works. Dinh was a man who wanted to share the truth even when the truth was covered by international powers. Dinh decided to go to the individual artists for these different works and interview them to share their stories to the world and that's exactly what he did. You would walk around hearing the stories of different artists and look at the works that give you meaning to the Vietnam war and what was really happening while showing the works of these people. The unity of this work shows the united people who had to struggle through a war while expressing their work. Dinh Q Le wanted to show the missing stories of people and what they experienced during the Vietnam war in Vietnam, this work is a showcase of go against the powers of censoring and to tell the stories of these people giving impact of the Vietnam war.
• Yue Minjun, The Execution, 1995. Oil on canvas, 150x300cm (2026) — 4 men in their underwear about to get executed, the people on the right laugh as this goes on, the colors are bright with the wall being a bright red color and the people on the right are in a gun holding position. This work shows the reality of the public reaction to this. Yue is the public. His people's ability to just keep going with life and move on, even when faced under rule, this is why for the wall in the back it is to show the entrapment of the Chinese government. The laughing faces and the invisible gun is also symbolism for people's reaction to just ignore it. The public doesn’t see the violence, so that means something has been done right? The laughing faces show people the empty laughter under political violence.

About the creator

Tommy Nghiem-Le on Galerra