Artist takes a break from usual form with a new medium

Artist Nguyễn Huy Hoàng (right) and his friend at the exhibition opening ceremony. VNS Photos Nguyễn Bình

HÀ NỘI Artist Nguyễn Huy Hoàng has shown off his large oil on-canvas paintings at Art Space after 30 years of working with lacquer. 

The exhibition entitled Cấu Trúc (Structure) displays 23 paintings from his total of 40 works the artist created over the course of 2021.

Contrary to lacquer painting, Hoàng chooses abstract lines as his way of expressing his soul through oil-on-canvas painting.

“I decide to work with oil on-canvas painting for my relaxing break,” said Hoàng at the exhibition opening ceremony. “With oil on-canvas painting, I don’t need to sketches. I can freely express my emotions on canvas as an experiment in structure and colour.”

Instead of letting go of his emotions, in order to put colour on the canvas as if unconscious, the artist looks for structures and compositions to which he then adds a coat of colour.

Each painting is a nuance that creates a rich yet unified exhibition in terms of execution and style.

Large horizontal and vertical brush strokes, seemingly spontaneous, overlapping each other, but then being completed and led in a certain structural direction.

It gives the abstract paintings at the exhibition a strong and coherent view of the structure, composition and lines with different colours.

The Structure exhibition has 23 paintings on show by artist Nguyễn Huy Hoàng.

“I think this exhibition is Hoàng’s experiment before he draws abstract lacquer paintings,” said veteran artist Đoàn Văn Nguyên.

“Abstract painting is that it does not reflect concrete things that can be seen. But it rather expresses what the artist feels.”

The paintings are all under the name Structure from number one to 23. They are sized differently from 100cm by 150cm to 200cm by 300cm. 

Explaining his inspiration behind one of the pieces, Cấu Trúc 10, at the opening ceremony, Hoàng said that it depicts ground with mossy stone caves to vast deserts, with endless dunes seen from very high above and is just a series of lines and patches interwoven so that roads and mountainous are no longer visible.

Painting Structure 10 by Nguyễn Huy Hoàng. Photo courtesy of the artist

“It is emotional with his new thinking in art,” said one of Hoàng’s colleagues. The oil-on-canvas paintings are Hoàng’s big change in his self-expression.

“He has worked hard for years during his creativity. The exhibition is his sharing of his artistic feelings with his friends and with life.”

After graduating Hà Nội Academy of Theatre and Cinema in 1986, Hoàng worked at Number 1 Picture Studio. He engaged in lacquer painting in 1995 and his passion for the form earned him two prizes at the first and the second Việt Nam – Asean Fine Arts Award in 1998-99.

One of his most popular lacquer paintings is the series Thánh Địa (Sanctuary) exhibited in 2015, inspired by Chăm culture. The first painting from the series sized at 240cm x 640cm is the largest. 

Hoàng is a popular artist with over 100 larger-form lacquer paintings including 40 works which are four metre squared. 

As a member of Việt Nam Fine Arts Association, he has had solo and group exhibitions in Malaysia, China, and Switzerland.

From 2000 to 2003 he was one of Vietnamese artists at 36 Ideas from Asia exhibition. It was a travelling exhibition of contemporary Southeast Asian Art organised by the Singapore Art Museum and visited Singapore, London, Zurich, Berlin, Paris, and Vienna.

The Structure exhibition, held by Lunet Art, runs until August 30 at 42 Yết Kiêu Street. VNS