The Artist

1978 Hanoi Vietnam

A well-rounded artistic soul, Giang is trained in classical violin, woodcuts, and oil painting. One of the most prominent female contemporary artists of Vietnam, Giang graduated from the Vietnam Fine Arts University, Hanoi in 2002 and was the first recipient of the Vietnam Foundation for the Art’s individual award in 2008 and winner of the Bright Young Eyes competition organized by the French Embassy and the Vietnamese Fine Art Association.

At such a young age Giang has already found the cadence of her own style, a sign of an artist well attuned to her inner voice. Giang’s paintings are full of wonderfully muted blues and greens, a style reminiscent of many European impressionist painters, and yet she imbues her canvases with an atmosphere singular to a young Vietnamese woman entrenched within her own private world. A world at times at odds with that which she is surrounded by.

The women in Ly Tran Quynh Giang’s paintings rarely conform to traditional standards of beauty or refinement, qualities stereotypically associated with Asian woman. Instead Giang chooses to paint from her own inner life, creating pieces that are more concerned with the intellectual and emotional side of femininity in 21st century Viet Nam.

Giang’s woodcuts are perhaps some of her most powerful works. The artist says “I received my training at art school in woodcuts, so I always see making woodcuts as my main profession. I see myself in a piece of wood, and in what I can do with it. Traditionally, woodcuts were created to make prints. Looking at the prints can give you an idea of the act of making woodcuts – the prints are the art – but somehow a piece of wood still gives you an amazingly different feeling – more natural yet more powerful. My woodcuts were created by my imagination, carrying my feelings and my energy at the time. Always there is one thought in my mind when I work. On my art: I want it to be real, I want it to be alive. I want to do more with wood, maybe more sculptural works. I see myself in a piece of wood and in what I can do with it.”

Giang has exhibited widely in Vietnam and internationally in Italy, England, USA, Singapore, China and Malaysia.