At the Vietnam National Fine Arts Museum, the exhibition "Ru Canh" by painter Phan Minh Bach brought silk works with emotional slices of nature, landscape memories and concerns about the changes in the contemporary living environment.
This is the female artist's second solo exhibition after the success of the "Odered Clouds" exhibition. The "Ru Canh" exhibition opened on May 12, bringing viewers 33 unique silk artworks.
Not simply a painting exhibition, "Ru Canh" is like a gentle dialogue between people and nature, where the artist chooses to tell stories with images, with traditional silk materials and with his own deep emotions before the scenery is gradually changing.
Graduating from Vietnam University of Fine Arts in 2004, more than a decade working as a newspaper design artist in parallel with researching culture and ancient fine arts has brought Phan Minh Bach a special cultural depth. From 2018 to now, the female artist has chosen a professional creative path, returning to painting as a way to listen to herself and dialogue with the natural world.
The special point in Phan Minh Bach's creation lies in the way the female artist uses silk as a traditional material that is soft and fragile but has the ability to contain very deep emotions. On the Vietnamese silk background, specialized watercolors, acrylic and yellow leaves not only create clear layers of color but also open up a feeling of memories, of flow and impermanence of the scenery.
The work "Ru Canh 13" brings a feeling that is both magical and heavy like a forest immersed in memories and changes. The entire painting is covered by jade green, dark blue and black-brown shades flowing on the silk background, creating a deep, cold and thoughtful space.
In the "Ru Canh" exhibition, nature appears not only as an object for observation but also as a living entity for the artist to send love, appreciation and regret. Those are the waterfronts, the waves, the strips of land, the green patches present in the paintings as if telling viewers a story about beauty that is gradually being eroded by time and the impact of humans.
The work "Ru Canh 17" is like a slice of nature changing. The painting is organized in a distinct multi-layered structure: above are blue mountain ranges and soft green patches, while the lower half is covered by reddish-brown tones with streaks, flows and cracks like eroded stratigraphy.
Through the silk paintings, the artist not only expresses concern about the erosion of the environment but also sends a belief: that nature as well as humans, always have the ability to be healed and reborn if loved properly.
Artist Ly Truc Son, who has been associated with lacquer and Do paper art for many years, when standing in front of the silk paintings of artist Phan Minh Bach, shared: "Standing in front of the female artist's paintings, I feel like I am standing in front of layers of moving memories. The artist does not paint nature in the usual realistic style but uses scenery to talk about human emotions, about loss and even hope of revival. Some paintings are very gentle like a whisper, but there are also works that create the feeling that nature is speaking powerfully to humans.
Artist Ly Truc Son shared that what impressed him most in Phan Minh Bach's paintings was not the technical display but the emotional depth and sincerity in the storytelling with silk.
Phan Minh Bach's paintings bring a very "soft" feeling, very feminine but inside contain a strong inner strength in thinking and emotions in the face of changing nature. The works at the "Ru Canh" exhibition are displayed until the end of May 18, 2026.
