artLIVE – ‘Mần chi rứa?’ is a gathering of five artists from Central Vietnam. Each one brings a voice, a memory and a personal point of view. They come together and share their stories through different materials, colors, and brushstrokes.
‘Mần chi rứa?’ – A simple question that opens a world of art
This familiar question sounds like a friendly greeting but also carries the quiet feeling of Central Vietnam. It’s soft, like someone stopping by your house and gently asking how you’re doing. A casual question becomes an invitation welcoming the viewer into a space where colors, lines, shapes, and the artists’ emotions speak for themselves.
From Hue, Quang Nam to Quang Binh… they bring into ‘Mần chi rứa?’ the sound of wind brushing over sandy hills, the dry sunlight on a mother’s back, and quiet emotions shaped by memory.
In their paintings, there’s soft silk like a lullaby, thick oil paint like the scars of time, and abstract forms that seem to question the self. Some artists choose to embrace the raw beauty of their homeland, as if planting roots deep into their cultural identity. Others quietly explore questions of identity and the past through abstract and dreamlike images.
Listening to art from the children of Central Vietnam
The Le Brothers – twin artists Le Ngoc Thanh and Le Duc Hai – are originally from Quang Binh and now live and work in Hue. One studied lacquer painting, the other oil painting, but they work together as one. Their practice goes beyond painting and expands into installation, performance, film, and video.
Their art is a quiet dialogue with memories of the post-war era and a history of separation especially through the lens of North and South Vietnam, and other lands that have experienced similar divides.
In 2008, they founded the New Space Arts Foundation – an independent art space and the first international artist in residence program in Vietnam, funded entirely by sales of their own artworks.
Painter Bui Tien Tuan was born in 1971 in Hoi An. He graduated with a major in silk painting from the Ho Chi Minh City University of Fine Arts and later taught at the same school before fully devoting himself to his artistic career. After spending time working with oil and acrylic, he returned to silk painting not out of nostalgia, but to bring new life to a traditional medium.
With skilled technique, confident lines, and a painting style that balances freedom and structure, he creates a world full of memories and emotions: a flowing ao dai in the sunlight, moss-covered rooftops, and old cyclo rickshaws. All of these appear through gentle, simple colors that bring back the charm of a distant, poetic past.
Artist Truong Thien, born in 1979 in Hue, graduated from the Hue University of Fine Arts. He began creating art at a young age and has participated in many exhibitions both in Vietnam and abroad since the 1990s. His work spans a variety of forms: oil painting, installation, performance, and visual art.
No matter which medium he chooses, he always maintains a distinct tone: steady, quiet, and deeply reflective. He was once a member of Hanoilink – a vibrant creative community active from 2006 to 2009. Truong Thien’s paintings are like silent slices of thought, where each patch of color carries layers of meaning left unspoken.
Artist Le Thua Hai was born in 1990 in Phong Dien, Hue. He grew up surrounded by memories of the O Lau River, Tam Giang Lagoon, and the ancient village of Phuoc Tich. These deep-rooted layers gradually seep into his paintings: royal palace windows, mandarin chairs, and old rooftops appear blurred like fragments of memory at once familiar and distant.
He follows the neo-expressionist style, a form of painting that was once considered “ugly” because of its raw emotions and powerful intuition that go beyond traditional rules. Le Thua Hai’s paintings reflect a collision between the inner self and the outside world, between intensity and calmness. His brushstrokes are unrefined, yet they always leave behind a lingering, haunting feeling.
Artist Le Tuong was born in 1969. He graduated from the lacquer painting department at Hue University of Fine Arts, but has worked with acrylic for more than twenty years. He stays true to a realistic style. In his works, each bowl, teapot, and ceramic vase is no longer just an everyday object, but carries its own soul.
Through many clear layers of paint, light appears not just to be seen, but to be felt. It is a soft, quiet light that resonates gently, as if each object is whispering something in the stillness.
The exhibition ‘Mần chi rứa?’ captures the shared rhythm of five artists: a mix of curiosity and quiet longing. Here, paintings are not only for viewing, but for listening to stories of life, of dreams, of the past, and of the unspoken spaces in between. In this way, the exhibition flows like a cultural stream, seen through the eyes of those who have lived, traveled, and left a part of their soul in the land where they were born.
The ‘Mần chi rứa?’ exhibition invites the public to listen to life stories from June 21 to July 20, 2025, at Annam Gallery, 371/4 Hai Ba Trung Street, Vo Thi Sau Ward, District 3, Ho Chi Minh City.
Photo: Annam Gallery
