The Artist

1962 HCMC Vietnam

Nhat Tran immigrated to the USA and settled in Indiana, shortly after receiving her Bachelor of Fine Arts, graduating with highest distinction from the University of Fine Arts, in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam in 1992.

The artist explains: “Trained as an oil painter since my youth, I have specialized since 1998 in a magnificent medium that remains unusual in the United States despite its potential, namely Asian lacquer or urushi (after its Japanese name). Urushi is an art that reflects the esthetic sensibility of the Asian soul. Its’ mysterious beauty and universal appeal has always fascinated me, and thus urushi has become my primary medium of artistic expression. My non-traditional use of urushi has led me to discover how well it adapts to the demands of contemporary art. Lacquer painting produces visual effects that I cannot obtain with other mediums. I have produced a large number of two- and three-dimensional abstract paintings, usually on wood, but also on extruded polystyrene and fiberglass.”

The artist has been a guest researcher in Kyoto, Japan in 2010 and 2015, perfecting her techniques and is considered one of the finest artists internationally working in lacquer. Through non-traditional usage of urushi techniques, she achieves stunning visual effects uniquely achieved with lacquer, unobtainable in other mediums.

She has had many commissions to make public art and her works are in the collections of the Hubei Museum of Art, Wuhan, Hubei, China, National Museum of Women in the Arts, Washington, DC, USA, The Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, DC USA, The Ohr–O’Keefe Museum of Art, Biloxi, MS, USA, The Renwick Gallery of the Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, DC USA and others.

See the Unseen 2002

Elusive, exotic, primitive and divine, this elliptical sculpture of finely crafted urushi lacquer embodies the core of the artist’s open unbounded nature.
The triangular feminine form intersected by an inclined plane leads the viewer into the unknown with a delicate and yet dynamic inquisition.