Nguyen Minh Thanh
Nguyễn Minh Thành (b. 1971, Hanoi, Vietnam) graduated from Vietnam University of Fine Arts in 1996 and is part of a small group of artists who influenced the development of Vietnamese contemporary art. His works have meditative and introspective qualities and engage with Vietnamese life and culture. Inspired by Buddhism and mainly using Chinese ink and watercolor on Do paper, Minh Thanh’s sad portraits are the result of an internal search for harmony and peace. He stated: ‘I believe that inside of each person there is real and perfect beauty – we cannot see it but we feel it. I would like to remind people that beneath our mind there is peace and from there, everything will begin.’
Nguyễn Minh Thành’s work has been widely exhibited both nationally and internationally and is included in numerous public and private collections, including the National Art Gallery of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia, the Fukuoka Asian Art Museum, Japan, the World Bank Art Program, and the Post Vidai collection of contemporary Vietnamese Art, Switzerland. After a decade of living a quiet life in Dalat, Nguyễn Minh Thành has returned to Hanoi.
Studio Visit with Nguyen Minh Thanh
Quynh Nguyen, founder of Nguyen Art Foundation, and Thy Nguyen, Project Manager of Nguyen Art Foundation, visited Nguyễn Minh Thành in his Hanoi studio on 27 November 2020. Minh Thành shared how the outside world shaped his thinking and practice, the early stage of his art career, the way he thought painting exists in the human’s world, the true selves of human that he recognized from his practice, and how he chose to side with the flutters of his heart.
This video is part of a series of interviews with artists in the Nguyen Art Foundation collection
Featuring: Nguyễn Minh Thành; Quynh Nguyen (Founder Nguyen Art Foundation); Thy Nguyen (Special Projects Nguyen Art Foundation).
Direction: Ta Minh Duc, Tra My Nguyen
Research and Production: MoT+++, Tra My Nguyen, Alessandra Dias
Photography: Ta Minh Duc
Sound: Nguyen Duc Thanh
Light: Nguyen Duc Anh
Translation: Chau Hoang