Journey to Zen painting and calligraphy

Artist Tram Kim Hoa was born in Ho Chi Minh City, grew up and lived in Australia. It was his life abroad that opened up opportunities for him to have an artistic journey spanning many continents. He participated in many exhibitions on Zen painting and Zen calligraphy in countries including: Australia, China, Hong Kong (China), Taiwan (China), Malaysia, Philippines, Canada... He persistently pursued painting, passionately learned, and at the same time deeply researched Buddhist Zen. Through that, he created, combined Zen, calligraphy and painting into a unique method of expression, opening up a new style and appearance for Zen-inspired calligraphy and painting.

Artist Tram Kim Hoa at the exhibition "Zen in life".

For artist Tram Kim Hoa, the creative process is “solitary days”, where paper, pen, ink and silence become companions, helping the mind to blend into the scene. He believes that Zen painting is mainly about the scene, while form only plays a secondary role. Familiar themes such as birds, flowers, landscapes… are personified by him to convey emotions. The empty space in the painting becomes a visual element that creates tranquility and inner depth.

His calligraphy also bears his own mark. He chooses a word or sentence that has a Zen meaning or is associated with personal experience to create a calligraphy work. He often uses cursive script because the lines and structure of the letters express freedom, in line with the creative spirit. From observing the shape and meaning of the letters, he transforms the lines and layout to turn them into visual works, carrying the spirit of "poetry has painting". Each work reflects his inner thoughts and experiences. Painter Tram Kim Hoa said: "My works express life through a Zen perspective, but do not let the viewer's mind stop at the senses or emotions, but take them through those emotions to return to the purity of the inner mind."

The combination of Zen spirit and contemporary visual expression makes his works shape a unique artistic world , where ink and blank space contain the breath of contemplation. He is highly appreciated by many international art researchers. Dr. Gerard Vaughan, Director of the Art Gallery of Victoria (Australia), shared: "Tram Kim Hoa's art breathes new life into traditional visual forms, a contemporary artist inspired by Zen spirituality".

Return to listen to the voice of “nothingness”

The exhibition “Zen in Life” is a remarkable return of artist Tram Kim Hoa to Ho Chi Minh City. At the same time, it continues the creative line that he has long pursued. Art researcher Ly Doi, curator of the exhibition, commented: “The exhibition is a necessary addition, in the context of contemporary art where many trends are blooming, but exhibitions associated with the concept of Zen are still rare.”

The works were widely received by the public.

Using only ink and water, the works minimize images, leading viewers into the inner world. For him, Zen painting is not about telling stories or describing, but reflecting the stream of consciousness. The incomplete circles, curved lines, and ink stains are seen as moments of breath, where the mind and the heart merge. The rest of the works are white spaces, but viewers do not fall into nothingness, but open up to the boundless, quiet space of the mind. The empty space in his paintings is for contemplation. Through that, one realizes that “nothingness” is energy, not absence. Black ink and white paper are not opposites but harmonize, “form is emptiness, emptiness is form”.

Art researcher Quach Cuong commented: “Tram Kim Hoa chose the path of silence. He painted with black ink on white paper, in the awareness of each breath. When people searched for "images", he only searched for "emptiness". And it was in that emptiness that his paintings, or more correctly, his Zen paintings began to speak wordlessly: the voice of "nothingness".

His paintings do not have the ambition to clarify the truth, nor are they those of an “enlightened” person. They are like traces of a person happily searching for a moment of meditation in everyday life: a cloud, a bamboo branch, a small path, a crane; or a passing thought, an illness, a passion… With a light-as-breath expression, he shares his experience rather than asserting.

With that spirit, the viewer seems to enter a silent space. At first, many thoughts may arise in the viewer, wanting to explain the structure or symbol. But after a while, those thoughts seem to fade away, giving way to the feeling of standing still in front of the empty space of the painting. Just look at the title, look at the ink, then let your mind calm down, find serenity in today's life.

Article and photos: MINH NGUYET

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    Source: https://www.qdnd.vn/van-hoa/van-hoc-nghe-thuat/tim-thay-su-thanh-tinh-qua-thien-hoa-1014524