The Artist

1966 Haiphong Vietnam

Trinh Quoc Chien graduated from the Vietnam Fine Arts University, Hanoi in 1993 and quickly established himself as a very serious young artist highly skilled in works of lacquer and also works on the handmade Do paper. The layered processes for both Chien’s lacquer and paper paintings are complicated and difficult. Using resins on wood, the lacquer, a traditional Vietnamese art form, requires painstaking diligence with many sequences of painting and sanding until the desired shapes and colors are achieved, in this case, unique to him. Chien created his own technique for his paper works, with layers of paper as well as gouache, tempera, and crushed sea shells. Trinh Quoc Chien’s enigmatic lacquer work is extremely well executed and nuanced and yet aims at spiritual simplicity. One of Vietnam’s most skilled lacquer artisans he flawlessly combines modern visual language with a traditional set of artistic techniques, the marriage of the two making for a powerful and spiritual visual experience.

Trinh Quoc Chien uses his knowledge of Buddhism and Buddhist iconography in his textured lacquer and multi-layered paper paintings. His complex compositions combine calligraphy, what appears to be ancient hieroglyphics, symbols of the Buddhist faith, animals, astronomical representations, and plant life which are loosely bound by thin three-dimensional veins of paper or lacquer. From these historic, religious, mythical and poetic themes, Chien creates contemporary work.

The lacquer displays a more restricted variety of the artist’s color preferences, with a predominance of the hues of traditional Vietnamese lacquer: black, red, and gold or ochre. Chien’s paper works reveal his more diverse color spectrum: from soft pastels to rich scarlet.

In 1996 the artist won the prize for ASEAN Art, sponsored by the Philip Morris Group of Companies. A winner of the Freeman Award, he participated in a residency at the Vermont Studio Center in the USA in 1997. In 2010 Trinh Quoc Chien had his first solo exhibition in the United States. His work has been exhibited in China, Hong Kong, Thailand, and the United States, as well as locally in Vietnam.