Beneath Layers of Time

09 am – 08 pm, Tues – Sun, 14 Dec 2025 – 18 Jan 2026
Mơ Art Space
Floor B3, 136 Hàng Trống, Hoàn Kiếm, Hà Nội

From the organizer:

Mo Art Space is pleased to present “Beneath Layers of Time”, a solo exhibition by artist Nguyen Xuan Luc, where lacquer unfolds on the pictorial surface and expands into sculptural forms.

In the convention of Vietnamese lacquer sơn mài, light can be seen in a glossy sheen inscribed with silver and gold leaves, egg shells, mother of pearl that has gone through multiple times of painting and sanding. Thus, it is a subtle source of light emerging from a dense radient surface. Born and growing up in Chuôn Ngọ craft village renounced for mother of pearl inlay, Nguyễn Xuân Lục acknowledges that an overuse of mother of pearl will render Vietnamese lacquer no less than a mere decorative intent. Thus, the artist in his works retrieves its utmost potential of embodying light. With that, it doesn’t serve to accompany the painting composition but becomes the main subject of inquiry. With iridescent and shimmering highlights, the mother of pearl in Luc’s works takes shape in series of stardust, rays of sharp lights penetrating the space, crisscrossing each other against the deeply back lacquer sơn then and brownish cockroach-wing-color lacquer sơn cánh gián. This mysterious yet captivating light has been recurring throughout “Beneath Layers of Time” (2025) and previous exhibitions “Dust” (2019) and “Lacquer & Paper” (2020). Taking the center stage in the biggest piece “Genesis 17,” the mother-of-pearl stardust drifts away in the dark background expanding the whole wall. In front of the piece, the viewers encounter an endless space of light and darkness operating on their own terms.

In Nguyen Xuan Luc’s practice, when Vietnamese lacquer rests in sculpture form, the visual experience changes accordingly. The multi-dimensional, wavy, and luminous lacquer finish in series “Reflection” and “Sediment” alludes to an aesthetic unable to retrieve through lens-based practice which captures a moment frozen in time. Rather, light, stardust, and the waves entails an everchanging account of the artworks pertaining to the viewers’ standpoints. This on-going phenomenon renders them no longer the remains of the past. They are entities in constant reconfiguration, which partly reflect the artist’s thoughts on the weirdly similar trait between humans and non-humans always being subject to change. – Excerpt from the exhibition article by Hue Nguyen.

Nguyen Xuan Luc (born in 1983 in former Ha Tay Province) currently lives and works in Hanoi. He graduated in lacquer painting from the Hanoi University of Industrial Fine Arts in 2007 and is a member of the Vietnam Fine Arts Association. Luc pursues Vietnamese lacquer as the central material in his practice, while occasionally experimenting with other materials and techniques as a way to expand his thinking and refine his creative skills.

In recent years, Luc has participated in and presented works at several notable exhibitions, including his solo exhibition Dust (2019) at the Vietnam National Fine Arts Museum; Lacquer & Paper (2020), also at the Vietnam National Fine Arts Museum; Dreaming about Foreign Lands (2021) at Mo Art Space; and most recently, Paths of Lacquer (2022). He received First Prize from the Vietnam Fine Arts Association Awards in 2021 and Third Prize at the Young Artists Festival in 2017, alongside participation in various exhibitions in Vietnam and abroad, including Taiwan, South Korea, Russia, and Thailand.

From the organizer event’s page.