The scent of silk

The 4th solo exhibition and launch of the art book of the same name, "Fragrance of Silk" (Hong Duc Publishing House, 2025, compiled by Tran Hau Tuan) by artist Nguyen Thu Huong will take place from now until June 11th at Eight Gallery art space (357/2 Nguyen Trong Tuyen Street, Tan Binh District, Ho Chi Minh City).

A work on display in the exhibition.

The exhibition displays 16 silk paintings along with several sketches by the female artist. Like some contemporary silk painters, Nguyen Thu Huong's silk paintings employ many graphic techniques, an attempt to break away from the characteristics of realistic painting with its three-dimensional space.

Silk, a material inherently associated with fragility and ambiguity, and the technique of blurred, smudged painting, has been significantly transformed by Nguyen Thu Huong and other silk painters through bold outlines of figures and monochromatic color blocks. Nguyen Thu Huong's outlining technique is also distinctive, with the outlines of the figures creating a continuous flow of movement within the composition, leading the viewer's eye along an inspiring, sometimes unexpected, melody.

In Nguyen Thu Huong's silk paintings, the image of the woman appears with many unusual variations: a figure tinged with blue or vibrant yellow, a face fading into the background, and almost all the alluring features of the female body shimmering and hidden within the decorative patterns.

Speaking about the unique differences in Thu Huong's silk paintings, collector Tran Hau Tuan analyzed: "What makes Huong's silk paintings different is not the graphic quality or decorative patterns, but the ambiguity of the masses, half concealing and half revealing the alluring beauty of the forms. The curves and lines seem to jostle, crowd together, and dissolve into the fabric, becoming fabric itself, but at times the human form suddenly emerges as if making a statement. These illusory images are sometimes deeply meaningful, sometimes light as a breeze, but always imply a hidden space behind them."

OCEAN

Source: https://www.sggp.org.vn/huong-cua-lua-post795736.html