HÀ NỘI — Two painters with two distinct artistic journeys and creative paths will this week converge in a single exhibition at the Việt Nam Museum of Fine Arts, showcasing their shared passion for enlightenment and life, in a meeting of styles that quite literally paints beauty in motion.

The exhibition, themed Cuộc Sống Tươi Đẹp (The Beauty of Life), will open from May 6 to 10 at the museum on Hà Nội’s Nguyễn Thái Học Street, featuring 50 outstanding artworks by the two female artists, Trang Thanh Hiền and Ly Tran (Trần Phương Ly).

The event is held not only to affirm the theme but also to raise questions: where does this beauty reside? Is it found in contemplative stillness imbued with a meditative quality or in the dynamic movement of emotion, structure and contemporary visual language?

According to art critic Associate Professor Dr Quách Thị Ngọc An, these seemingly simple questions are answered by the two artists with full creative passion, giving rise to a richly layered exhibition that unfolds across multiple dimensions of form, colour and painterly language.

"The meeting of these two artists is not necessarily a convergence of form, but rather a resonance at the level of inner sensibility. Both engage in the search for identity and enduring values within a rapidly changing contemporary world. While Hiền approaches the present through the lens of tradition, Ly draws from transcultural experience to construct new frameworks of emotion and thought," An said in a statement to Việt Nam News and Law.

“The Beauty of Life is therefore not merely an exhibition but a journey of perception, inviting viewers to enter different layers of beauty: from stillness to movement, from intuition to reason, from the personal to broader connections with culture and the world.”

By continuing her exploration of life through the lens of culture and spirituality, Hiền, who is also a lecturer and Deputy Head of the Faculty of Art Theory, History and Criticism at Việt Nam University of Fine Arts, presents over 20 works in her familiar medium of ink on dó paper combined with printmaking and woodcut techniques.

Visitors to the event can sense a continuation from her previous solo exhibitions, such as Đáy Sóng (Depth of Waves), Mùa Trong Vườn (Seasons in the Garden) and Ảnh Xạ (Reflections), but in a new form.

Hiền said that, for her, creativity accompanies research. Through research on Buddhist art she can read and understand the ancestors’ messages.

"The art has given me wings to paint pictures brimming with the idea of enlightenment. The Beauty of Life can be seen as an exhibition marking a journey where enlightenment blossoms, allowing me to better understand myself in the world of painting, a connection between the past, present and future," said Hiền.

Beyond imagery, Hiền’s works embody a synthesis of research on traditional art and Vietnamese Buddhist aesthetics. Her use of traditional handmade paper and ink, together with a symbolic system of lotus, Buddha figures and folk motifs, has created a world that is at once tranquil and subtly charged with inner movement. Lotus flowers and leaves alongside the Sala flower motif are reconfigured in multiple dimensions, layered and interconnected within open rhythmic spaces.

These narrative arrangements evoke mandala-like structures in Buddhist art, gathering and radiating elements around a spiritual axis. Alongside the familiar monochrome palette, the artist introduces vibrant Pop Art-inspired hues such as pinks, magentas and purples with nuanced tonal variations.

"This shift not only softens structural rigidity and expands the emotional register of the works but also establishes a lyrical feminine rhythm of colour forming a striking connection between the two artists across their contrasting artistic sensibilities," An said.

 

Meanwhile, Ly Tran, a Vietnamese-American artist, has a practice shaped through diverse cultural contexts.

Born and raised in Hà Nội, she received formal training in Art and Design in Moscow, Russia, for seven years before settling and developing her career in Maryland, United States.

Ly Tran’s artistic practice spans multiple countries, with exhibitions in the US, Austria, Việt Nam, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand and Taiwan (China).

Bringing to the event a different energy: open, multidimensional and distinctly international, her 30 works presented in this exhibition mark a significant turning point in her artistic practice.

From expressive paintings, in which colour and gesture function as direct vehicles of emotion, her work evolves towards a direction she defines as Organic Cubist Abstraction, reflecting an effort to construct a new visual language.

"Forms are fragmented, restructured and absorbed into fluid movements, evoking the rhythms of living bodies and nature. Visual elements exist in a continuous state of circulation, interconnection and interaction. This process not only expands her expressive range but also reveals a clear shift in her artistic thinking, from intuition towards a more constructive, structural approach," said An.

At the intersection of structure and emotion, Ly Tran is shaping a distinct visual language where all forms are alive, in motion and exist within an inseparable system of continuous circulation. — VNS