HCM CITY — Lacquer is the link which unites one artist from Việt Nam and two from France at the painting exhibition “The Soul of Vietnamese Lacquer” at the HCM City Fine Arts Museum.

The exhibition displays 34 paintings by Nguyễn Văn Minh of HCM City, and by Mitchell Pontie and Annick Tarbouriech of France.

Minh is showings six large paintings, reflecting his love for and attachment to the country. His subjects are children, women, landscapes, cultural festivals and people’s daily activities.

In his painting Sau Giao Thừa (After Lunar New Year’s Eve), Minh depicts images of Vietnamese women and children dressed in áo dài going to school to pray for a happy new year.

The Đồng Tháp-born artist shows his nostalgia for his hometown through his painting Quê Tôi (Memory of my Homeland) with familiar images of banana trees and a cầu khỉ (foot bridge) crossing a canal in Cửu Long (Mekong) Delta.

Born in 1965, Minh began his painting career in 1989 with a group exhibition in the Mekong region.

In 1992, he graduated in lacquer painting at HCM City Fine Arts University, and then became one of the most outstanding lacquer artists in the city.

He has introduced his Vietnamese lacquer works at exhibitions in France, Thailand, South Korea, Chile, and Singapore.

Thinned-skin #2 by French artist Annick Tarbouriech is on display at the exhibition “The Soul of Vietnamese Lacquer” at the HCM City Fine Arts Museum. — Photos courtesy of the artist

As a lecturer at the city’s Fine Arts University, he inspires both Vietnamese and foreigner to love the art.

His student Annick Tarbouriech is showing eight abstract paintings at the exhibition.

The French artist uses inlaid eggshells and mother-of-pearl in colours of gray, white, pink and green to give a mineral appearance to her paintings.

After finishing a work, the layers create images like islets on the paintings. She calls them Shagreen skin, Thinned-skin, and Shedskin.

Tarbouriech graduated in fine arts from Aix-en-Provence University in 1987, and became lecturer at the school from 1987 to 2010.

In 2010, she came to Việt Nam to study lacquer techniques with Minh, and then had several group exhibitions with Vietnamese and French artists in both countries.

Pontie, whose mother is Vietnamese, depicts the coexistence of opposites in her 20 paintings, which combine both Vietnamese with European cultural heritage.

Pontie was born in Chợ Lớn (China Town in HCM City), and now lives and works in France and Việt Nam.

She has held several solo and group exhibitions in France and Việt Nam since 2007.

The exhibition be open until July 27 at the Fine Arts Museum, 97A Phó Đức Chính Street, in District 1. — VNS