Everyday lives depicted in lacquer paintings.

Most of the works in Tran Quoc Long's "Eating and Drinking" exhibition are simple, like pages from a life diary, told through the powerful, sometimes rough, expressive language of painting.

The "Eating and Drinking" exhibition, featuring 16 lacquer paintings on various themes by artist Tran Quoc Long, will take place from June 3rd to 10th, 2026 at Art Space, 42 Yet Kieu Street, Hanoi .

Overall, the series of paintings doesn't pursue "beauty" in the sense of balance or bodily perfection. It could be the face of a man, the face of a child, a portrait of an old friend, or a stranger who has briefly crossed our paths in life.

The artist deliberately creates awkwardness, distortion, incomplete faces, blurred body parts, and paint that appears to be melting. This is what creates a very real feeling: We are imperfect, always fragile and anxious, silently struggling within ourselves.

Tran Quoc Long's lacquer paintings typically avoid warm colors like bright red or vibrant yellow. He is very economical with color. This series is no exception – the dominant colors are ivory white of silver, brick red of vermilion, banana green, black, earthy brown, and pale pink. But it is precisely this that evokes a profound sense of tranquility, like the colors of old walls, old wood, old paper, or a region of old memories.

Artist Tran Quoc Long

What's special is that, through his technique of blending and polishing multiple layers, his paintings always possess a natural transparency and depth – a depth that isn't ostentatious but subtly unfolds beneath the surface. The 16 works don't shine with the dazzling brilliance of "golden splendor" or "royalty" often seen in the "beautiful" style of lacquer painting.

Tran Quoc Long's paintings also contain "gold," "silver," and "red," but they depict simple things. These include the lovely, innocent, and whimsical image of his little daughter in the series "Little Tep on a Spring Trip "; and "A Meal by the Sea," with its muted colors, reminiscent of a family meal shared by fishermen during a storm.

The painting "The Returning Flock of Birds" impresses with the power of silver metal, a difficult material to work with, yet the artist masterfully manipulates it, making the silver shimmer. The forms of the flock of birds are intertwined. The artist doesn't depict clearly defined lines but allows the colors to blend naturally, creating interwoven shapes that move like the freedom of a migrating flock.

The essence of meditation in small moments.

The most distinctive feature of Tran Quoc Long's paintings is his approach to surface treatment. Instead of pushing the lacquer towards a glossy, smooth, and polished finish in the traditional way, he allows the lacquer layer to peel away like a layer of memory. At times, the surface of the painting resembles the lingering surface of rainwater, like streaks of emotion that haven't yet dried.

An artwork displayed at the "Eating and Drinking" exhibition.

Layers of opaque white paint cover the figures of people, clouds, flowers, boats, etc., like a mist of memories enveloping life. Everything appears incomplete, unclear, flickering between existence and non-existence.

In many of the works, the subject almost disappears. The girl's white hair covers her face. Her body blends into the background. The clouds dissolve into rain. Only one eye remains visible on her face. The boat seems to drift in a hazy mist… This technique creates a powerful psychological impact: the person is present, yet seems to vanish.

Looking at his paintings long enough, one can sense a meditative quality in his work. This meditative quality emanates from very small, very trivial, very real moments. These are restrained silences, flat spaces, and wordless voids. He says little, but provokes contemplation.

Tran Quoc Long currently lives on a plateau, where every morning clouds drift lazily below the mountain in front of his house. Everything flows from his life into his artwork, naturally and honestly, like breathing. Eating and drinking are simple topics that everyone understands and experiences, but few would think they could become a subject of art.

He brings very small things into the exhibition: a meal, a roof, a cloud, a journey, a face, a glance… And it is these ordinary things that contain the entirety of the human condition.

Tran Quoc Long paints lacquer paintings in an expressionist style, subtly influenced by the unconventional approach of Baselitz or the spirit of Art Brut. However, Long doesn't completely follow Western trends. His paintings still carry the spirit of East Asia. In fact, many of his works even have a folk quality, although that folk structure has been broken down and distorted, opening up a new life imbued with contemporary spirit.

"Eating Rice, Drinking Water" is artist Tran Quoc Long's second solo exhibition in Hanoi, following his "3,600 Days" exhibition 15 years ago, when he was still a student. To this day, he remains steadfast in his commitment to this difficult, slow, and challenging medium, as if it were his destiny.

Source: https://phunuvietnam.vn/nhung-than-phan-doi-thuong-trong-tranh-son-mai-238260527181437431.htm