Pham Tra My and her 8-year journey of persistent preparation for her first solo exhibition.

The exhibition "Tropical Dreams" (sad tropics) will present to the public 37 lacquer paintings by artist Pham Tra My, created between 2018 and 2025, opening up an emotionally rich artistic space where tropical nature becomes symbolic images representing the inner life, memories, and silent dreams of the artist.

The artwork "Calling the Moon" by artist Pham Tra My, created in 2023.

"Tropical Dream" (sad tropical) is an invitation to enter a garden of emotions. There, beauty, sadness, and faith in life coexist in a gentle and dreamy state, carefully gathered and incorporated by the artist into their work.

Born in 1986, Pham Tra My graduated from the Monumental Painting department of the Hanoi University of Industrial Fine Arts. She chose lacquer painting as her medium for her artistic journey.

With its slow pace, demanding considerable time and patience, and the fact that the color effects and spatial depth only gradually emerge upon completion of the polishing process, Pham Tra My views lacquer painting as a companion. Through lacquer painting, she has cultivated patience, nurtured her creative inner strength, and fostered unwavering belief in the potential to unlock artistic depth.

Sharing her journey in art, painter Pham Tra My said: "For me, brilliant things can also be sad, and sadness isn't necessarily dark. My works, therefore, are both revealing and concealing, both suggestive and retaining a necessary moment of silence."

For Pham Tra My, painting has become a sanctuary for her emotions.

It seems that painting has become a sanctuary for Pham Tra My's private emotions and dreams. Choosing the natural world as her main theme, the female artist's works are constructed from a dreamlike world – where flowers, plants, animals, mountains, and rivers constantly repeat, intertwine, and coexist in the garden of her memories.

"I paint so that beautiful things can last longer, to comfort myself, to share, to remember, to forget, and to feel that I still have emotions and energy for life," artist Pham Tra My expressed.

Nature in Pham Tra My's paintings is expressed through a vibrant decorative language with many shades: the green of pigments, the red of lipstick, the shimmering gold and silver. The soft curves of water and clouds, branches of flowers, blades of grass, birds, animals, or schools of small fish are stylized, along with the hidden faces of people... all blend together, creating a feminine, gentle beauty that is not weak.

The solo exhibition "Tropical Dreams" (Sad Tropical) by artist Pham Tra My will take place from January 20-27 at the Vietnam Fine Arts Museum (66 Nguyen Thai Hoc, Ba Dinh, Hanoi).

NGOC KHANH

Source: https://nhandan.vn/pham-tra-my-va-hanh-trinh-8-nam-ben-bi-chuan-bi-cho-trien-lam-ca-nhan-dau-tay-post937027.html