artLIVE – Lego and Graffiti are two seemingly completely separate fields, but for artist Huynh Khang, they have become two important pieces on his artistic path.
Huynh Khang is a Graffiti artist with over 17 years of experience, he is also known for his LEGO works with strong Vietnamese cultural imprints. He also contributes to promoting the culture of the street art community through his role as a judge of the artLIVE Graffiti Championship 2024 competition.
Graffiti started from simple signatures, as a way to affirm the presence of Graffiti artists on the walls. Over time, the signature became more complex, transforming into more interesting shapes, creating an independent art form. With the strong development of the internet, graffiti has now become more sophisticated, becoming a unique means to spread positive messages to the public.
Huynh Khang’s journey to graffiti art
Huynh Khang with the tag name Kade (art name Graffiti), is one of the leading flags of the Graffiti group Click.9 (C.9) – one of the first groups to contribute to the formation and development of Graffiti art in Ho Chi Minh City after Hanoi. Huynh Khang and his group have contributed many unique works of art throughout the streets of Ho Chi Minh City.
Huynh Khang said he started his relationship with graffiti in 2006, when the internet had just become popular, when he taught himself to draw through videos and images from foreign graffiti artists. With a background in graphic design, he quickly realized that his strength was combining colors and blocks to create works that were both deep and vivid.
“Graffiti was initially just simple signatures on the wall, but I was fascinated by the way each artist could turn their name into a work of art. From then on, I knew this was the path I wanted to pursue,” Khang recalled.
He also did not hesitate to admit the difficulties he had faced: “The hardest thing for a Graffiti player is to find their own style – a very important thing in graffiti, and from there people in the industry can look at the handwriting and immediately recognize whose work it is.”
The challenges and prospects of Graffiti in the flow of contemporary art
According to the Culture and Arts Magazine, graffiti entered Vietnam quite late compared to other countries in the world. In fact, graffiti first appeared in Hanoi around 2002 and then in Ho Chi Minh City around 2009. Although it has appeared for more than two decades, graffiti in Vietnam is still a small community.
According to Huynh Khang, this is both a challenge and an opportunity. “As a person in the industry, I have to accept the offensive aspects of graffiti,” he shared. However, he also affirmed that these limitations open up potential for artists to explore and gradually bring this art closer to the public. In addition to sketching ideas, he always focuses on using colors, effects and contexts to highlight his works. He considers graffiti as a spiritual therapy: “When I am tired, I turn to graffiti as a way to relieve stress.”
In particular, Artist Huynh Khang is a judge of artLIVE Graffiti Championship 2024, one of the rare events dedicated to graffiti artists in Vietnam. He expressed his excitement: “The competition is a big challenge. Normally, we play together, but now we have to compete with each other. This also creates a lot of pressure when we compete with each other and have to complete our works in front of many viewers.” However, he believes that this pressure will help artists reveal their full potential and shine. As a judge, he hopes that the competition will be both a playground and a bridge for the Vietnamese graffiti community to develop more strongly.
The artLIVE Graffiti Championship 2024 is a competition dedicated to Graffiti artists, one of the outstanding activities within the framework of the event Saigon Urban Street Fest organized by artLIVE.
From Graffiti to the art of creating puzzle pieces LEGO
Besides Graffiti, Huynh Khang also finds joy and inspiration in creating with LEGO. He shared that the knowledge from graffiti has greatly supplemented this passion. Blocks and colors – two typical elements in graffiti – become the foundation for him to build vivid LEGO works.
Huynh Khang is proud to be the first representative of Vietnam to participate in Masterpiece Gallery 2024 – the annual LEGO creative exhibition in Billund, Denmark. Through his LEGO works, he contributes to bringing Vietnamese cultural values closer to international friends.
Along the small alleys, under the flickering street lights, the noodle cart is a familiar cultural symbol on the streets of Vietnam. Therefore, Huynh Khang used LEGO pieces to depict the image of the noodle cart in the exhibition in Denmark.
He shared that “The noodle cart” is the work he is most proud of because it evokes many emotions about his childhood memories. “The noodle cart near my house was an indispensable part of my childhood. The clacking sound every night was like a familiar rhythm, making me miss home every time I was away from home,” Khang shared.
