A visitor to Spectrum of Scene exhibition. — Photo phunuvietnam.vn

HÀ NỘI — A new free exhibition in Hà Nội titled Spectrum of Scene offers a modest reflection on the influence and representation of nature, memory and abstraction in paintings by five artists.

The painters involved in the show are Phạm Đức Tùng, Trương Văn Ngọc, Lê Quỳnh Anh, Nguyễn Hà My and Hà Minh Thuận. 

The exhibition evokes not only the changing landscapes of nature, but more fundamentally the evolving movement of artistic thought, as each artist encounters and interprets reality – not the reality perceived by the eye, but the reality constructed through contemplation.

It likewise reflects the gradual transition of painterly language from generalisation to stylisation, and ultimately toward abstraction as part of a continuous flow.

Within the exhibition, although differing in their visual approaches, the perspectives of all the artists converge in an exploration of the dialogue between nature, memory and the subtle transformations of inner life, imbued with a distinctly Southeast Asian sensibility.

Tùng is the most experienced artist. As he told saatchiart.com: "For me, art is the path of religion and the painter is a practitioner, discovering himself." 

According to the website, his "distinctive abstractions are imbued with symbolic messages that are attached to the nostalgia of childhood, as well as the emotional and the spiritual."

The website goes on to describe his paintings as mostly acrylic on canvas, characterised by the use of texture and bold colours.

Thuận is the youngest of the five artists. 

Taking nature as the point of departure for his artistic practice, he does not seek to depict the landscape itself. Rather, through the materiality of painting he employs both the physical presence of his medium and the construction of textured surfaces as a space for expressing memory and emotions that resist articulation. 

The exhibition does not focus on either figurative or non-figurative painting, but sees the movement between the two as reciprocal, shifting from realism to abstraction and back again.

Each work is allowed to reveal itself through the viewer's own sensitivity, regardless of the artistic tendency to which it belongs.

The show runs until August 23 at Indochine House, N8 Tràng Thi Street. Admission is free and doors are open from 10am to 5pm, Tuesday to Sunday. — VNS