HÀ NỘI — Ru Cảnh (Scenery Lullaby) – an exhibition featuring the aspiration of "reviving" natural landscapes – will open this week at the Việt Nam Museum of Fine Arts in central Hà Nội.

The event, taking place from May 12 to 18 at the museum on 56 Nguyễn Thái Học Street, will display 33 outstanding silk paintings by Hanoian artist Phan Minh Bạch.

The works, created since 2023, showcase the artist's observations of beautiful natural landscape, evoking feelings of admiration, love and appreciation, while also stirring regret, sorrow, and anxiety at the erosion, destruction and gradual loss of nature.

However, beyond mere sorrow and anxiety, Bạch's creations carry her heartfelt wish for the revival of natural landscapes – an emotional thread stemming from subconscious thoughts and aspirations.

Nature in her works, from her thoughts and emotions, is specially beautiful while also confronting inevitable changes due to both objective and subjective influences, including climate change, human impacts and environmental pollution.

Its reflection is divided into five series with five themes of Hoa Sóng/Sóng Nước Nở Hoa (Flowering Waves/Waves Blooming with Flowers; Dòng Chảy Của Đất (Earth Flow); Phong Cảnh Tan Biến (Landscape Fading Away); Ru Cảnh (Scenic Lullaby) and Nhịp Điệu Tự Nhiên (The Rhythm of Nature).

Bạch chose Ru Cảnh as the key title of this exhibition because it highlights the central meaning of the whole event which regarded as a gentle dialogue between humanity and nature.

Ru (lullaby) carries a sacred meaning of love, affection and a hidden connection between two subjects, which in this case, means human and scenery, according to the artist.

Graduating from the Việt Nam University of Fine Arts in 2004, Bạch worked as a newspaper graphic designer for more than10 years, alongside researching ancient culture and art. She has been a professional artist since 2018.

Before Ru Cảnh, the artist had her first solo exhibition titled Mây Ngỏ (Open Clouds) at Art30 Gallery, Hà Nội in 2023, alongside many other group exhibitions in the city.

She uses different materials in her creations such as specialised watercolours, acrylics and gold leaf on traditional Vietnamese silk fabric.

Along with popular silk painting, she dedicates herself to researching and experimenting with special techniques and materials used on traditional Vietnamese dó and tuyên papers, particularly the silk fabric.

Bạch's artistic work is based on personal experience and research, focusing on two overarching themes of Humanity and the Natural World. Following the success of her first solo exhibition on the theme of humanity, from 2023 to the present, she has focused on a second major theme of natural world.

Bạch said she views art as a reflection of life, a journey from the past to the present andtowards the future.

This journey encompasses many stages and different emotional nuances, both external and internal.

For a middle-aged woman artist like her, Bạch believes that maturity and tolerance are essential, and art at this stage of life requires depth and rich emotion.

This second solo painting exhibition, Ru Cảnh, marks a new phase in her artistic journey.  VNS