A free-flowing reason to add an art stop to a Vietnam trip: the Flow of Lacquer (Dòng chảy sơn mài) exhibition brings together works from 20 Vietnamese artists at a Ho Chi Minh City gallery, running from October 10 to November 11. The focus is largely feminine — portraits of women rendered in the country's signature medium, traditional lacquer painting — alongside nostalgic views of Saigon itself.
The standout names include Dinh Thu Ha, whose Lotus Dream (Mộng liên hoa) pairs the emerald of an ao dai and lotus leaves against a glowing gold ground, and her Soliloquy Beneath the Moonlight. Lacquer, she explains, is a slow, punishing craft: artists build up layers and grind them back over and over, and organic materials can be ruined by careless handling. She likens the process to hunting for treasure — the deeper you dig, the more it pulls you in.
Veteran Tran Van Co, who has spent over a decade painting and teaching, uses Thuy Du Melody to push an unusually broad palette, arguing that lacquer's tonal range frees artists to invent modern techniques without being boxed in by convention. Le Trong Hoang takes a philosophical route with Resonance (Ứng), probing the inner psyche of his sitter.
One of the more interesting backstories belongs to Olivia Mai, formerly managing director of a fashion brand, who picked up lacquer only around six years ago, during the COVID-19 pandemic. Her realist works show young women at ballet practice and at the piano, and her Asian Beauty uses a circular tondo frame for a softer, feminine effect. Lacquer taught her, she says, to accept starting over from scratch after a mistake — and the payoff when a piece finally lands after months of work.
For travellers, the Saigon-themed pieces are the hook. Nguyen Thi Kim Tu's Shadow of Time depicts Mong Bridge, a century-old landmark in the city centre, while Duong Thi Thuy Hien's Nostalgic Saigon is a triptych featuring the Notre-Dame Cathedral. Seeing these places in paint, then walking past them the same afternoon, is a neat way to read the city through its artists' eyes.
If you're in Ho Chi Minh City between early October and mid-November, this is a compact, high-quality introduction to a craft Vietnam is famous for — and a reminder that the country's contemporary art scene is well worth a gallery morning between street-food stops.
