Nguyen Hoai Huong

Vietnamese identity and space: Nguyen Hoai Huong's artistic practice is an ongoing search for the idea of “Quy cố hương” — returning home, to memory, childhood nostalgia and local cultural values. His imagery draws on the symbols of the Vietnamese countryside — the upturned eaves of the village communal house, golden haystacks, lotus leaves, a girl in a peach-coloured yếm by the pond… — restructured through a contemporary lens.

Where painting meets architecture: His art has a non-linear, stylised yet solid sense of composition, supported by his background in architectural spatial design. His paintings do not stop at the flat surface but open out, evoking a three-dimensional spatial structure with the philosophical depth of the East.

A language of materials: Although he started out in oil painting, Nguyen Hoai Huong reached his most recognisable voice in lacquer. He moves freely from narrative figuration to purely abstract structures, fully exploring the depth of lacquer's polished layers of colour.