A wooden sculpture Thiếu Nữ (Young Women) by Lê Mạnh Hà is on display at the second International Artistic Encounters, a joint exhibition between Vietnamese and French artists at the HCM City Fine Arts Museum. — VNS Photo by Phương Mai

HCM CITY — The second International Artistic Encounters, a joint exhibition featuring 11 Vietnamese and French artists, opened yesterday at the HCM City Fine Arts Museum.

The exhibition includes 73 paintings in oil, acrylic, lacquer and mixed media, and 19 sculptures in wood and ceramic, by six Vietnamese artists, two Vietnamese-French artists, and three French artists.

French painter Elisabeth Besnier is showing seven oil paintings, reflecting feelings on women’s faces, gestures and bodies.

Her works include Vie (Life), Joie (Joy), Abandon (Abandonment), Attente (Waiting), Bien-être (Welfare), Méfiance (Mistrust), and Pensées (Thoughts).

Born  in 1970, she studied visual arts at the Paris College of Arts. Her paintings have been shown at galleries in Normandy and at the Affordable Art Fair in Belgium.

She has also won top prizes at several arts contests in France.

The Bình Thuận-based Lương Lưu Biên showcases four large-scale lacquer paintings featuring images of women.

His works are Dải Lụa Đỏ (Red Silk), Ballerina, Buông (Release) and Đàn Bà (Woman), which were created in 2017.

Biên is a member of the HCM City and Việt Nam Fine Arts associations. He has had numerous solo and group exhibitions in HCM City, Singapore, Indonesia, Hong Kong, South Korea and France.

The exhibition also includes 15 wooden sculptures by Lê Mạnh Hà, a lecturer at the University of Đồng Tháp Province.

Hà, a native of Bình Định Province, is showing his sculpture collection Thiếu Nữ (Young Women) and the collection Mẫu Tử (Mother and Children).

The artist, a member of Việt Nam Fine Arts Association, has participated in several exhibitions in the country since 2006.

The event also features works by Eugéniya Zharaza, Myriam Feuilloley, and Normandy-based Lê Mai Diễm Thúy and Nguyễn Kim Chi.

Other Vietnamese artists include Huỳnh Phương Thị Đài Trang, Nguyễn Thanh Mai, Nguyễn Công Hoài and sculptor Nguyễn Mậu Tân Thư.

The exhibition was orgainised by La Seine et Le Mékong (The Seine and the Mekong) Association, in collaboration with the HCM City Fine Arts Association and the HCM City University of Fine Arts.

La Seine et Le Mékong is a non-profit organisation founded by Nguyễn Kim Chi and Freddy Loiselier in 2015 in Normandy.

It aims to create a cultural bridge between Normandy and the Mekong Delta region in the form of an art biennial alternating between France and Việt Nam.

In May 2017, the association organised its first International Artistic Encounters in Normandy featuring Vietnamese artist Lương Lưu Biên. The event attracted more than 20,000 visitors.

The exhibition in HCM City will close on June 17. The museum is at 97A Phó Đức Chính Street in District 1. — VNS