An exhibition of lacquer paintings by Nguyen Quoc Huy recently opened in Hanoi, with works natural beauty and the artist’s imagination about a fairy land.

Tran Quoc Pagoda painting sized at 160cm by 242cm by artist Nguyen Quoc Huy. 

The exhibition is displaying 29 large size sơn mài paintings.

Entitled Fairy Land, it is Huy’s second solo exhibition, including 29 artworks created from 2006-18, with original techniques.

Huy has researched lacquer for the past 10 years and used eggshells, seashells, gold and silver to depict the fragile beauty of nature.

"No artists before me have used lacquer materials to paint mist which is water suspended in air and unshaped," said artist Huy. "I want to try lacquer material’s weak point, which is weight, to picture light things. The research took me 10 years."

Tran Quoc Pagoda is the largest painting at the exhibition at 160cm by 242cm. It was made from 2007-10 from the artist’s memories of Tran Quoc Pagoda in the 1990s with its many banana trees.

Tran Quoc Pagoda was made with more than 100 grams of gold, which Huy inlaid six layers into the painting to portray the beauty of each banana leaf. It was the first time Huy created such a large lacquer painting.

Visitors can see Huy’s skill to feature the ethereal beauty of mist and clouds in paintings Winter Comes, Thousands of Cloud and Light Spring.

"When I look at the lacquer painting by artist Huy, I am lost in the fairy land," said Park Hyejin, director of South Korean Cultural Centre in Hanoi. "The artist depicts Vietnamese rural natural scenes with realistic style. Universes in Huy’s paintings have soul and they are attractive amazingly."

Teaching lacquer painting at the Viet Nam Academy of Fine Arts, Huy has built a reputation of elaboration and sophistication.

Huy has gained many achievements both domestically and internationally.

He has won awards including the first prize at the National Fine Arts Exhibition from 1995-2005; the second prize at the Asean Fine Arts Exhibition 2002 in Indonesia and the Second Prize at the 7th ASEAN Phillip Morris Art Awards in Chiang Mai, Thailand in 2003.

He has exhibited in Germany, France, Britain and Italy. The Fairy Land exhibition will run until November 17 at 49 Nguyen Du Street, Hanoi. — VNS