Le Thua Tien (b. 1964, Vietnam) graduated from the Hue University College of Arts in 1988, completed his postgraduate education at the Rijks Academy (The Netherlands, 1995–1996) and received his MFA from the UNSW Art & Design (Australia) in 2009. An enigmatic and private artist, Tien seeks solace in his art, his works balancing sensibility and criticality, and is deeply engaged in both the visual and conceptual aspects of art making. While Tien’s earlier practice can be seen as an attempt to reconcile with one’s grief and suffering of a war-torn past, his later work shifts away from specific concepts and towards developing a close relationship with particular media such as lacquer, charcoal, text, painting, sculpture and installation.
Tien was a lecturer at the Hue University of Arts, Vietnam, from 1990 to 2010. He held his first solo exhibition titled Monumentalite in Time at Gallery Amber/East-West Foundation, Leiden, The Netherlands, 1995. Le Thua Tien has also exhibited significant installation projects including Wild flowers, Hue, Vietnam, 2002; Moonlight, Perfume River, Hue, Vietnam, 2002; Field of Hope, Moriya, Ibaraki Prefecture, Japan, 2003. His notable group exhibitions include from Roots to Canopy, Galerie Quynh, HCMC, Vietnam, 2023; L’Infini du Miroir, L’Espace, Hanoi, Vietnam, 2018; Foliage, Vingroup Center of Contemporary Art, Hanoi, Vietnam, 2017; Kenpoku Art 2016, Ibaraki Prefecture, Japan, 2016. In 2015, the artist participated in a residency at the Vermont Studio Center, USA.