For S.E.A. Focus 2023, DE SARTHE is pleased to present Quiet Mannerisms, a series of brand new works by Vietnam based artist, Richard Streitmatter-Tran. Presenting 5 acrylic on canvas paintings, these works surround the later Millenial and GenZ generations, and their attitudes towards work and life balance. The series title references a phenomena known as ‘Quiet Quitting’, or ‘Laying Flat’ –「躺平」(tǎng píng) in Chinese.

Faced with shrinking opportunities for prosperity and impending environmental disaster, the youngest generations, as a movement, are rejecting the capitalist productivity culture and are defining their own lives instead.

Richard Streitmatter-Tran’s compositions reflect the distortion and collapsed unrealistic space of Italian Mannerist style paintings of the 1500s, a result of the digitally collaged images that are created before the sketches are physically transferred to canvas and wood panel for painting.