Nguyen Thanh Vu

Nguyễn Thanh Vũ (b. 1995) is a Vietnamese artist based in Ho Chi Minh City. Trained in architecture at Ho Chi Minh City University of Architecture, he shifted from architecture toward painting in 2021. That background remains visible in his attention to structure, spatial rhythm, and the way cultural symbols occupy a composition. Working primarily in oil, and also in ceramic, Vũ pursues a Post-Impressionist approach in which color, texture, and emotional force take precedence over strict naturalism.

His practice develops along two connected paths. One revisits Vietnamese architecture, history, belief, and sacred-animal imagery through projects such as Kỳ Ẩn Việt Nam (2022) and Từ Tính Tứ Linh (2024), developed through archival research and field study in Vietnam and neighboring regions. The other uses waves, clouds, light, and cyclical movement as vehicles for inner states, including Into The Unknown (2025), which relates the changing phases of a day to stages of human life and incorporates Buddhist mudra imagery. Across both directions, Vũ treats painting as a way to reactivate inherited cultural memory and translate it into a contemporary visual experience rather than preserve it as a fixed image of the past.