Truong Huyen My

For Trương Huyền Mỹ, art is a way to understand and release the inner self. Born in Nam Định in 1974, she came to professional painting later in life, after first studying Business Administration. At the age of 28, she chose to return to her childhood love of art, graduating from the Lacquer Department at Ho Chi Minh City University of Fine Arts in 2009 and later completing a Master of Fine Arts in 2015. Today, she is a member of the Ho Chi Minh City Fine Arts Association.

Mỹ’s practice moves between lacquer, acrylic, ceramics, silver leaf and black line. Among these materials, silver leaf holds a special place. She is drawn to its shifting brightness, its ability to change with light and viewing angle. For her, this quality keeps the image open, never completely fixed. A work may appear quiet at first, then slowly reveal new layers as the viewer moves around it.

Her love for lacquer began with its depth and mystery: hidden layers of colour, strong black outlines and the luminous surface created by silver leaf. She is also inspired by the ink paintings of Japanese Zen masters, where restraint and simplicity can carry great emotional force. This influence can be felt in her controlled palette, her attention to tone and her interest in silence as a visual language.

Rather than describing life directly, Mỹ often borrows, fragments and rearranges images from reality. She uses familiar subjects as a way to explore the inner world. For her, art is not only a form of expression, but also a process of transformation. Painting and ceramics help her turn difficult emotions into something clearer, calmer and more balanced.

Urban life is one of her important sources of imagery. Works such as Rush Hours, Honda Dream, My City, Electric Poles, Electric Poles Body and Urban reflect the density and rhythm of contemporary city life. Motorbikes, traffic, electric poles and crowded streets are transformed into layered compositions of black, white, silver and shadow. These scenes are not simple records of the city. They become emotional maps of pressure, memory and movement.

Alongside these urban works, Mỹ also explores more symbolic and playful forms. In pieces such as Lady Cat and Her Dream Fish and Fishes, animals and imagined figures open a more personal space. Her ceramic works extend this language beyond the flat surface, allowing texture, volume and material to carry the same sense of reflection found in her paintings.

Since 2005, Trương Huyền Mỹ has participated in many exhibitions, including the Ho Chi Minh City Young Artist Exhibition, the National Fine Arts Exhibition in Hanoi, annual exhibitions of the Ho Chi Minh City Fine Arts Association, ceramics exhibitions, and the group exhibition UP – Unique Passion.

At the heart of her work is a quiet search for emotional clarity. Each subject becomes a doorway into the self. Through silver light, black lines, layered surfaces and ceramic forms, Trương Huyền Mỹ creates art that is restrained yet expressive, personal yet open. Her works do not seek to overwhelm. They invite viewers to slow down, look closely and feel the subtle movement of an inner landscape.