Vietnamese, French artists' paintings in HCM City hinh anh 1The Muse, an abstract painting by French artist Agnes Mayberger. (Photo courtesy of the artist)

HCM City (VNS/VNA) - “Reality and Consciousness” is the title of a group exhibition of five Vietnamese and French artists at the Ho Chi Minh City Exhibition Centre.

The showcase includes 40 oil, acrylic and mixed-media paintings on canvas and silk, alloy and papyrus by Nguyen Thi Tam, Tran Thuy Linh, Tran Thanh Thuc, Nguyen Nhu Khoi and Agnes Meyberger.

Tam, 82, a native of the Mekong Delta province of Tien Giang, is showing silk paintings depicting the beauty of her motherland.

She uses bright colours to paint familiar images in the Mekong Delta, including cau khi (tree-trunk bridges) and boats laden with flowers and fruit in her work Ben Xuan (Wharf in Spring).

“We are artists who travel all year around from the north to the south, from the highlands to the plains to paint landscapes, people and customs, as our thanks to the motherland,” Tam said.

Tam, a graduate in oil painting from the Gia Dinh Fine Arts College (now the HCM City Fine Arts University) in 1958, has been part of 30 solo and group exhibitions in Vietnam, France, the US and Germany, among others.

French artist Meyberger is showing her abstract paintings, which were triggered by immersion in the worlds and art forms of yesterday and today

She combines ancient artistic techniques with new tools and contemporary media, and the spatial art of architecture with contemporary forms of street art.

Mayberger said her paintings with warm colours and vibrant shades of black have “my figures and forms dialogue with each other in an abstract expressionist language.”

Linh, who does semi-abstract and abstract paintings, is showing a series of oil and acrylic paintings titled The Realm, featuring themes about existence, nature and the universe.

Thuc’s oil on canvas paintings are inspired by music which allows him to distinguish different types of joys, and feel either optimism or pessimism.

Truc, a native of northern Nam Dinh province, uses fabric collage techniques to create her paintings, reflecting her memories of where she has lived and travelled, and what she loves and cares about.

The exhibition will be open until November 20. – VNS/VNA
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