Coal and rice flour propel Vietnamese artist to a prestigious Southeast Asian painting award.

Than đá, bột gạo đưa họa sĩ Việt tới với giải thưởng hội họa nổi tiếng của khu vực Đông Nam Á

Artist Nguyen Viet Cuong and his artwork Flow

VTV.vn - Artist Nguyen Viet Cuong will continue to compete with winning artists from countries in the region to conquer one of the leading prestigious art competitions.

Through his work "The Flow," artist Nguyen Viet Cuong skillfully uses two indigenous materials, coal and rice flour, to depict the story of Vietnam's natural resources. The artist meticulously processed, cleaned, and ground the coal into pebbles before sieving and sprinkling them onto the canvas. Rice is ground into powder, mixed with glue, and then shaped using a funnel to create a flow of the solution down the layer of black coal. This combination ultimately creates a contemporary ink landscape painting with a poetic dialogue between black and white, evoking the graceful beauty of the stalactite formations in Vietnam's caves.

The artwork "Flow" earned artist Nguyen Viet Cuong the second-ever UOB Painting of the Year award in Vietnam, in the Established Artist category.

Artist Dang Xuan Hoa, head of the competition's judging panel, shared his assessment of the winning artwork: " The Flow is a unique work in terms of materials and expression, reflecting a new way of thinking in contemporary art while still preserving the spirit of painting. The two materials the artist chose to express themselves are black charcoal and white rice, natural materials found in everyday life, embodying the vitality, spirit, and soul of the Vietnamese people. We see that the artist has a profound perspective with a soul full of emotion."

The artists were honored at the awards ceremony.

As the top winner in the Established Artist category, artist Nguyen Viet Cuong will receive a cash prize of 500 million VND and will compete for the prestigious UOB Painting of the Year Southeast Asia 2024 award alongside winners from Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, and Thailand. The results will be announced on November 13, 2024, at the awards ceremony in Singapore. First held in 1982 in Singapore, this is one of the most prestigious art competitions in Southeast Asia to date. The competition aims to discover artistic talents and provide them with the opportunity to showcase their work to a wider community in the region. Also honored at the awards ceremony in Vietnam was Phan Tu Tran in the Emerging Artist category with her unique work titled "Doraeco" .

Phan Tú Trân and her work won the Promising Artist award.

Through her work "Doraeco ," Phan Tú Trân stated that she wanted to convey a message to everyone about the importance of protecting the environment and the shared ecosystem of humanity, aiming for a green, clean, and sustainable ecosystem. The winning works from both the "Established Artist" and "Promising Artist" categories will be displayed at the Ho Chi Minh City Museum. The exhibition will be open to the public free of charge from October 5th to October 20th, 2024.

VTV.vn - Artist Nguyen Viet Cuong will continue to compete with winning artists from countries in the region to conquer one of the leading prestigious art competitions.

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