In this exhibition, Nguyen Thu Ha showcases 38 paintings, including works previously admired in Ha Noi along with a new collection marked by distinctive colours, emotions, and contemplation.
At her first exhibition in Ha Noi, the artist brought quiet dialogues to viewers. Each painting conveyed personal stories of joy, sorrow, solitude, and belief in renewal expressed through delicate layers of colour.
Returning to painting after 20 years, Nguyen Thu Ha has tirelessly pursued watercolour — a material that seems soft and fragile yet demands strict discipline. Perhaps even she cannot explain why she is so passionate, she only knows that she lives fully with her emotions in each portrait, conversing with herself and with her characters through lines, tones, and fragile boundaries.
One year after her first exhibition, as her works are introduced once again to the public, she feels more clearly the strength and depth of the genre she has chosen. Each moment of hesitation and each inner concern has been transformed into inspiration and inner peace.
Within the past year, she has created many new works, completing the original portrait series and shaping a clearer artistic path for her as an artist — a path where watercolour becomes a medium for expressing reflections, emotions, and deep empathy with life.
From Ha Noi, Nguyen Thu Ha’s artistic journey continues in Ho Chi Minh City, a space with completely different emotional textures. If in Ha Noi, her watercolour portraits opened as quiet dialogues between the artist and herself, then in this city, the artworks are illuminated by a new light — where viewers, in the hustle and bustle of urban life, have the chance to pause, slow their breath, and see themselves reflected in the eyes of a stranger.
Bringing stories from the highlands, from memories, from lands where people remain connected to nature and pure emotions, Nguyen Thu Ha presents this exhibition in Ho Chi Minh City as a journey inward - a return to the inner self amidst the bright lights and unceasing rhythms of urban life.
The thirty-eight exhibited works, including pieces once appreciated in Ha Noi and many new creations, are arranged once again in a simple yet coherent spatial structure. Through the medium of watercolour — soft but full of challenges — Nguyen Thu Ha tells stories of people, of emotions, of the beautiful things within the human spirit.
The artist hopes that viewers will discover something new from the creative energy within her and find themselves reflected in a glance, a smile, or a fragile contour, where emotions become tangible, and where life is preserved through the breath of watercolour.
At this exhibition in Ho Chi Minh City, Nguyen Thu Ha has invited her muses to appear directly at the opening ceremony, creating a vivid, living moment that allows the audience to meet the people and faces that inspired each portrait.
Artist Nguyen Thu Ha graduated from Ha Noi University of Industrial Fine Arts in 2002, but it was not until the end of 2021 that she truly “returned” to painting, opening a new chapter filled with passion and artistic confidence.
Before this exhibition, in July 2023, she and 19 Vietnamese artists participated in an exhibition titled “Southern Winds – Contemporary Vietnamese Fine Arts” in Ulaanbaatar (Mongolia). In November 2024, she introduced her solo exhibition “Watercolour Portraits – Reflection through Mirrors” in Ha Noi, marking a significant milestone affirming the powerful return of an artist devoted wholeheartedly to her passion.
The exhibition “Watercolour Portraits – Reflection through Mirrors” will take place at the Ho Chi Minh City Museum of Fine Arts from November 22 to November 20, promising to offer refined and emotionally rich artistic experiences.
