In the Flow of Silk 2025
Opening: 06 pm, Tues 07 Oct 2025
Exhibition: 10 am – 05 pm, 07 – 10 Oct 2025
Biệt thự Pháp cổ 46 Hàng Bài
49 Trần Hưng Đạo, Hà Nội
From the organizer:
Silk has long been an artistic material, closely associated with East Asian culture. Throughout history, silk was used for writing, recording historical documents, and also served as the painting surface for many great Eastern masters. However, when Vietnamese painting entered the 20th century, silk took on an entirely new form.
Modern Vietnamese silk painting originated at the Indochina College of Fine Arts. Unlike the Chinese tradition of painting dry directly onto the silk surface, Indochina painters created a new technique: painting and washing simultaneously, allowing colors to gradually seep into the silk fibers. When the silk became saturated and could no longer absorb pigment, that was when the work was complete. This technique gave Vietnamese silk painting a sense of depth, diffusion, softness, and delicacy.
Silk became a fertile medium to express the subtlety and sensitivity of the Vietnamese spirit—especially since silk painting was almost absent in Europe and, even in Asia, only sporadically practiced in China, Japan, and Korea. The silk material of each country influenced the artist’s technique and means of expression; therefore, Vietnamese silk, with its uneven weaving styles, became the ground on which modern silk painters could shine. It can be said that silk has become a distinctive language of Vietnamese identity.
In modern silk painting, artists are no longer bound by any single rule or technique. They can apply the knowledge and methods of both East and West to express their artistic spirit. The exhibition “In the Flow of Silk 2025” is therefore not only a journey to explore how contemporary Vietnamese artists are practicing art on silk, but also a reminder of creativity, identity, and national spirit in 20th-century Vietnamese painting. Through the hands of modern Vietnamese painters, silk has evolved from an everyday material into an artistic medium, and ultimately into a cultural symbol carrying Vietnamese aesthetics.
The artists featured in the exhibition “In the Flow of Silk 2025” include Nguyễn Văn Trinh, Phan Cẩm Thượng, Trần Hoàng Sơn, Nguyễn Thị Ngọc Diệp, Đỗ Thị Duyên, Lê Ngọc Hiếu Hạnh, Nguyễn Duy Anh, Nguyễn Cẩm Nhung, Nguyễn Phương Hoa, Nguyễn Thu Hương, and Lưu Chí Hiếu.
Cập nhật thêm thông tin tại trang sự kiện.
