VietNamNet Bridge – Veteran artist Le Trieu Dien’s latest exhibition of oil paintings reveals how the past has informed his present.

Countryside dreams: Artist Le Trieu Dien’s Return 1.

Dien says the show at HCM City’s Tu Do Gallery, titled Return, reflects "my return to the fields, deltas and wharves. And thus a return to myself".

"I want viewers to return to their native honesty."

In the exhibition, Dien experiments with only two colours, white and brown, to reveal the essence of life.

Using images of historic characters engraved on stones, his works lay open his subconscious mind and evoke a quiet sense of space.

Calling his work "quite simple", the 66-year-old self-taught artist says, "For me painting is a game of colours and lines."

Born in the southern province of Ben Tre, Dien is a member of the Viet Nam Fine Arts Association and has won several top prizes at national fine art competitions.

He has had nearly 20 solo and group exhibitions at home and abroad.

His exhibitions in Paris and Singapore in 1991 and 1992 introduced aspects of southern Viet Nam’s traditional culture and lifestyle.

Dien says he has spent five years involved in pottery, finding a new passion to inform his current work.

The exhibition can be seen at Tu Do Gallery, 53 Ho Tung Mau Street, District 1, HCM City. It is open every day from 9am to 5pm and ends on Wednesday. The price of paintings range from US$400 to $4,000.

(Source: Viet Nam News)