HCM CITY — A joint exhibition featuring 14 Vietnamese and five French artists, Rencontre 2018 (Meet 2018), has opened at the HCM City Fine Arts Association.

The exhibition displays 35 paintings in oil, acrylic, lacquer and mixed media, and seven pieces of ceramic sculpture.

French painter Monoel Pillar is showing three oil paintings of landscapes and lifestyle of cities in Việt Nam.

His works include Cần Thơ, Bóng Đổ trên Khu Vực Bà Chiểu (Bà Chiểu area of HCM City), and Nhà trên Kênh Nhiêu Lộc (Houses along Nhiêu Lộc Canal).  

Born  in 1946, Pillar studied at the Casa de Velázquez, a French school in Madrid, Spain, from 1972-1974, and then taught at the École Nationale Supérieure des Arts Décoratifs until 2011.

He has travelled to Asia and painted many landscape works of big cities like Tokyo and Seoul.

The Bình Thuận-based Lương Lưu Biên is showing two large mixed-media paintings featuring images of women.

His works, which are Chân Dung (Portrait) and Che Chở (Protection), were created this year.

“My art depicts weakness and loneliness,” said Biên, 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, and has been part of joint exhibitions of French and Vietnamese artists in France and Việt Nam.

The exhibition also includes a sculpture called Tê Giác (Rhino) by Nguyễn Mậu Tân Thư of Bạc Liêu Province.

His work includes three statues of rhinos made of terracotta.

The 44-year-old Thư said: “Rhinos are one of my topics under my project called Wildlife Animals. I want to warn people that many kinds of wildlife are extinct. They are losing their living environment due to logging, hunting and climate change.”

Thư graduated from the HCM City Fine Arts University in 2002, and from the School of Fine Arts in Tours, France in 2008.

He has organised three solo exhibitions in HCM City.

The Rencontre 2018 exhibition is co-organised by the French Institute in HCM City and the Fine Arts Association.

The event is part of the celebrations of the 45th anniversary of bilateral diplomatic relations and the fifth anniversary of the Việt Nam-France strategic partnership.

Huỳnh Văn Mười, chairman of the association, said: “The exhibition aims to create a cultural bridge between Vietnamese and French artists to share their experiences in the arts, and contribute to the relationship between the two countries.”

Mười said the event was the fourth joint exhibition of Vietnamese and French artists held in HCM City this year.

The exhibition will close on October 25 at the association, located at 218A Pasteur Street in District 3.  — VNS