DEEP BLUE: An oil on canvas painting by Nguyễn Minh Quang is on display at the exhibition “Hiện Tại Màu Lam” (The Blue of Now) which is opening at the HCM City Fine Arts Museum until December 26. Photo courtesy of the museum

HCM CITY – Nguyễn Minh Quang, a lecturer at the HCM City Fine Arts University, opens a visual dimension where shades of blue represent metaphors for various emotions and thoughts at the city Fine Arts Museum.

The exhibition “Hiện Tại Màu Lam” (The Blue of Now) displays more than 20 monochrome paintings in blue and a composite sculpture.

Quang, who has devoted more than a decade to monochrome painting, uses oil to dematerialise reality.

These works impress art lovers with intense blue monochrome space and portraits hidden in the paintings.

Each portrait serves as a silent dialogue between Quang and his existential self, between the artist and humanity, and between an individual and another inside the picture.

Quang said: “By centring on a singular shade of blue, I transform it into a representative space, deeply examining the tangible to weave narratives of existentialism.”

Artist Quang (right) introduces the artworks to visitors at the exhibition. Photo courtesy of the museum

Born in Hà Nội in 1972, Quang graduated from the Hà Nội College of Fine Arts in 1994. He earned a master’s degree at the Việt Nam University of Fine Arts in 2007 and a doctorate at the Shanghai Academy of Fine Arts, China in 2016.

The artist has held six solo exhibitions in Hà Nội and HCM City. He has participated in numerous exhibitions in China, Japan, South Korea, Thailand, Germany, Norway, the Netherlands, and Việt Nam such as “Inheritance and Transcendence Contemporary Lacquer Painting” at the Lianfu Art Museum in Xiamen, China in 2024, and “Vietnam in Europe, Europe in Vietnam” at the Ancient Leiden Observatory in Leiden City, the Netherlands in 2019.

Quang won top prizes at national and international competitions and festivals such as the ASEAN Fine Art Awards and National Fine Arts Exhibition.

Art lovers can visit the exhibition “The Blue of Now” at 97A Phó Đức Chính Street, District 1 until December 26. – VNS

HOW BLUE IS NOW: A composite sculpture named Portrait of Life by Nguyễn Minh Quang. Photo courtesy of the museum