Each layer of paint is a layer of alluvium

1. The exhibition includes nearly 70 paintings on display, created from 1995 to 2024. Although only a part of the works of the two artists, the collection is quite complete in expressing the process of working with the material and their transformations. Not many Vietnamese artists who grew up during the Doi Moi period have the habit and ability to "collect" their own paintings, especially for the lacquer painting genre - which requires a lot of effort and money to create.

When the material of our paint (psillary paint) was used in the art of creating lacquer paintings in Vietnam in the 1930s, its color palette was very limited, including: Brown rice wings, then (black), lipstick (red), white (uggles), yellow, silver. However, with their talent, artists from the Indochina College of Fine Arts have discovered and created a special painting genre with names such as Nguyen Gia Tri, Pham Hau, Nguyen Sang, Nguyen Tu Nghiem... In the following stages, the color palette of lacquer paint is expanded, adding green colors that the previous stage did not have, while opening up other expressive abilities of the material. The painting does not stop at its profound, splendid beauty with its accurate estimates as before, but brings a harmonious, close atmosphere that can express many levels of subtle emotions.

"Like layers of alluvium" shows the journey to find new colors for lacquer paintings, especially green and bright orange. How to make the sticky paint with the brown color of the crow's wing not lose the new color that the artist adds, it is a whole process of experimentation, casting, the time is calculated in years and months. In addition to patience, there is also a love for materials, for art that both artist Trinh Tuan and Cong Kim Hoa diligently pursue.

The common point of the two artists is that over time, no matter how color is added or the technique is thicker, the common spirit that is still maintained in those paintings is purity, lightness, and brightness. Viewers feel the souls of the two artists do not age and the paintings are as young as in their twenties. Surrounding them are trees, clouds, sunshine, love, a sparsely populated city...

2. The 6X generation, born and raised in Hanoi, both graduated from the University of Industrial Fine Arts, but both painters Trinh Tuan and Cong Kim Hoa did not originally come from the lacquer industry. Trinh Tuan majored in glass, Cong Kim Hoa majored in ceramics. Nearly 10 years after graduating, the artist learned lacquer painting from artist Dang Ngoc Bach in To Tich Street.

The two artists' turn to lacquer, in the end, did not tell us that it was a fun experience, or at least added to their artistic life. For art, any major, going a long distance is always a challenge for artists. And working for a long time without feeling stuck or having to try to endure it, is something that everyone wants to achieve.

Two basic things that Trinh Tuan and Cong Kim Hoa recognize the potential of lacquer: This is a special natural material given to the tropical climate of Vietnam, different from other Asian countries, lacquer painting is a way to preserve, develop and spread Vietnamese art to the world. Second is working with lacquer, although requiring many aspects of technique, time, and finance, this material meets the ability to express wide, attractive emotions and foster their love.

But perhaps an equally important thing is that, despite having common points, being each other's partners, and being in the same boat, both Trinh Tuan and Cong Kim Hoa have found their own path. The paintings in the exhibition are interspersed, but viewers still recognize which paintings are by Trinh Tuan and which are by Cong Kim Hoa. Each person is a clear and distinct identity without being mixed or mistaken.

Although they tend to expand lacquer paintings, simplify images in paintings and stylize them, Trinh Tuan's decorative painting expresses have a sophisticated, refined look, keeping the image of houses, trees, streets, children, girls, lovers... Cong Kim Hoa goes out to the specific image border to generalise them as symbols. Trinh Tuan paintings give viewers a feeling of warmth, completeness, and fullness, the movement that does not leave each space containing it. Cong Kim Hoa makes viewers feel that something is still continuous and unpredictable, both connected and unconnected, independent and very isolated, seemingly calm, quiet but fierce, constantly bustling.

Let's see how Trinh Tuan named his work: The time of the rose, The garden of the sky, Love story, City in the mind, The season of the summer, doi doi, Street at night, In a deserted room, In a quiet garden... Cong Kim Hoa put in: The old features, Youth, Point of transition 2, White dance, Color of the city, Around the middle of a day, The cut, The Origin, The movement of the sun, the ocean connecting... The speeches of an art lecturer who has been in the teaching profession for nearly 40 years seem to give up to give gentleness to Trinh Tuan's paintings, the strength and volume that are not seen in the language as well as the way of speaking in artist Cong Kim Hoa are put into art. Perhaps the lacquer paintings of the two artists are two ways of reflecting in the opposite direction, which people rarely recognize in real life. Maybe, that is the deep soul, which only art can touch and help them express.

3. 30 years to tell the story of lacquer painting, as artist Cong Kim Hoa said, does not mean only choosing green to describe the leaves of the tree or the color of the water. Nature is so rich, why are we rigid and dry? There are so many red leaves, so many water flows that make the alluvium warm. How many times I took a break from painting to make pottery, silk, and scrap paper paintings, how many times I left the workshop to go to classrooms, to museums around the world to see paintings. How many times have I brought my paintings out of the border to talk about Vietnamese lacquer art to those who care and love them everywhere...

Each of these is a layer of alluvium for the soul, so that in the end the lacquered soil becomes thicker, deeper, more solid in both technique and expression. If each person has fate to stick with it, they will not work, not preserve it, as artist Trinh Nhat Vu said, then "the next generation without anyone caring about it will lose it".

The sedge flows along the water, but it is thanks to the wharf that keeps it, the fine vegetation grows on a layer of alluvial foundation. Nothing is born naturally, this exhibition summarizes its 30-year journey with one material, it experiences the continuous nurturing of artistic labor, which is what Trinh Nhat Vu learned.

The continued accumulation or erosion of existing values, starting from awareness and accompanying actions in accordance with that awareness, in all aspects, is always a question waiting for an answer, more than a spark in the paintings.