“The Cycle of Life and Death” by Pham Tran Viet Nam comes to Hue

Artist Pham Tran Viet Nam with his work. Photo: Organizing Committee

The solo exhibition by artist Pham Tran Viet Nam will open on May 10 at Le Ba Dang Memorial Space (Kim Son Hill, Thuy Bang Ward, Thuan Hoa District). He is the first young artist to be selected to exhibit at this space.

With 22 artworks, Pham Tran Viet Nam invites viewers into a “rebirth” in recent years, akin to reconstructing older paintings through cutting, tearing, and recombining to create new forms. His works do not describe or interpret; rather, they evoke intuition. This is what Pham Tran Viet Nam refers to as “super intuition”, a creative state that transcends logic and form, where images are constructed not by conventional visual rules but seem to be summoned from a deep unconscious current.

Pham Tran Viet Nam shared: “I was like a sleepwalker while paining this series. My emotion and energy flowed naturally. Painting became a translation of spirit and language from another existence. Over time, through constant work, I began to understand more deeply the spirit and language of the images I created. I resonated with and naturally merged into that other existence…”

Pham Tran Viet Nam, 40, is a contemporary visual artist born in Da Nang and currently based in Ho Chi Minh City. He graduated from Ho Chi Minh City University of Fine Arts in 2010, majored in Sculpting, but chose painting, particularly oil painting, as his primary medium of artistic expression.

Pham Tran Viet Nam was a finalist for the prestigious APB Foundation Signature Art Prize 2018 organized by the National Museum of Singapore, and won the Gold Award at the UOB Painting of the Year Vietnam 2023, one of the region’s most respected art competitions. His works are part of several private and institutional art collections, including Le Thai Son Collection, Lavelle Collection, The Outpost Art Collection, and The UOB Art Collection.