The Artist

1969 Hanoi Vietnam

Nguyen Thi Chinh Le is an artist, a sculptor, and a poet. The gentleness of her soul finds its way into all different forms of expression which explore the act of meditation, as well as motherhood, of spirituality as well as domesticity. She is one of Vietnam’s most traditional contemporary artists, and one of its most promising.

Chinh Le’s work is highly influenced by her life as a Buddhist.
“Buddhism is an important religion in Vietnam and I was born into a family of Buddhists so I grew up with Buddhist altars, books and philosophy surrounding me. It slowly comes into my mind unconsciously until I grew up and started to study Buddhism by myself… Learning from Buddhism how to get rid of sorrow and sadness, seeing life and death as a certainty, that’s how I try to achieve the freedom of my mind.”

Chinh Le comes from a family of artists and is known for the versatility of her work. Works of silk, oil on canvas, lacquer, and bronze sculpture express the broad range of her talent.

Recently in 2019 the artist challenged herself by working in yet another medium, computer generated collages. She takes photos of all her previous works and combines those images with computer images. For her 4th solo exhibition in November 2019 at Art Vietnam Salon, ALO, the artist finds inspiration in the poem of Zen Buddhist monk, Thich Thanh Tu. As the artist is contemplating the autumn years of her life as she turns 50, she continues her exploration of the meaning of life and its cyclical nature. Chinh Le is a unique quintessential artist who lives simply on the outskirts of Saigon with her husband, also a well-known artist. Her life is her art.