Artist Pham Tra My next to her artwork - Photo: Provided by the artist.
Despite graduating with a degree in monumental painting from the Hanoi University of Industrial Fine Arts, Pham Tra My chose lacquer painting as her preferred medium.
After more than 10 years of diligent work with lacquer painting, Pham Tra My is confident enough to introduce her artistic soul to the public with her first solo exhibition titled "Tropical Melancholy" at the Vietnam Fine Arts Museum from January 20 to 27.
Feminine, gentle beauty
37 lacquer paintings created by Pham Tra My between 2018 and 2025 invite lovers of beauty to step into the artist's vibrant garden of emotions, where the beauty of tropical trees and birds, along with sadness and faith, stand together, gentle and dreamy.
Viewers recognize that Pham Tra My's dreamy gardens transcend the familiar colors of traditional lacquer painting and the classical compositions of painting (space not confined to perspective but expansive). Then, a feast of vibrant colors, seemingly simple yet elusive, unfolds.
The work Dream of Flowers 1
Having followed Pham Tra My's work for a long time, female artist Nguyen Ngoc Dan realized that Tra My's artistic style gradually perfected through the process of applying color, refining forms, and emphasizing volume.
The lines are soft, ethereal, and flowing. The gentle curves of water and clouds, branches of flowers, blades of grass, birds, animals, or schools of small fish are stylized, along with the subtly appearing human faces, creating a feminine and delicate beauty.
Let's move beyond the superficial decoration.
It's easy to see that Pham Tra My is dreamy when it comes to lacquer painting, but what's even more impressive is the inner world hidden within those vibrant paintings.
In her works, Tra My doesn't tell stories in a sequential order, nor does she clearly define the main and supporting characters; instead, she unfolds before us a languid flow of emotions.
Pham Tra My's paintings are rich in decorative and ornate elements, reminiscent of the Art Nouveau movement, but at the same time, Tra My's lacquer paintings possess a unique identity with vibrant colors, stylized forms, and lines that evoke a worldview deeply rooted in East Asian aesthetics.
Pham Tra My's dreamy, peaceful gardens contribute to contemporary Vietnamese lacquer painting a rich and pristine artistic style.
Many people are impressed by the way Tra My draws overlapping layers of images, one image placed on top of another, creating a multi-layered visual effect.
But it's not just the strong visual impressions; looking deeper into Pham Tra My's works, beyond the superficial decoration, viewers perceive complex internal contradictions of emotion within a vibrant and joyful setting.
And then I realized that the dazzling sadness was actually a lingering, painful sadness.
The work Dream of Flowers 1
Source: https://tuoitre.vn/nhiet-doi-buon-cua-pham-tra-my-20260121110348656.htm
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