From August to October, art organizer Rare Sea brings a diverse group exhibition to Saigon, featuring artworks by six young artists: Lê Đ. Chung, Lê Nguyễn Minh Như, Nguyễn Thị Thanh Mai, Huyền Dương, Thanh Tùng (Ches) and Sophia Mai Brown.
The event, titled “fiction, fraction” (tích, tách, mảnh mơ), is curated by Lại Minh Ngọc and An Trần. It brings together several pieces in a number of visual mediums, including oil painting, lacquer, hand-printed practice, silk and paper.
Sophia Mai Brown is an artist based in New York City, working in drawing and printmaking. Brown maps interactions between the natural and the built world, connecting real landscapes with imaginary inhabitants.
‘Saigon River’ by Sophia Mai Brown. Photo by Phạm Hồ Chí Quốc.
Huyền Dương is a multidisciplinary artist whose practice is drawn from personal experiences and everyday events. Trained in oil painting, she works across traditional materials — including textiles, papermaking, and printmaking — as well as digital tools, circuit bending, and toy making.
‘A Handsome Duck and falling Angels’ by Huyền Dương. Photo by Phạm Hồ Chí Quốc.
Thanh Tùng is a multimedia artist based in Hồ Chí Minh City, Vietnam. His practice is rooted in observations of everyday street life in Vietnam, where urbanization continually reshapes landscapes, ecosystems, and indigenous belief systems.
‘Amphidromus dohrni’ by Thanh Tùng (Ches). Photo by Phạm Hồ Chí Quốc.
Nguyễn Thị Thanh Mai employs various mediums such as drawing, installation, documentary film, video, and journalism to highlight issues spanning from personal narratives to broader themes of history and migration.
‘The taste of memory’ by Nguyễn Thị Thanh Mai. Photo by Phạm Hồ Chí Quốc.
Lê Nguyễn Minh Như is among the few young artists in Vietnam who approaches Vietnamese silk painting through mineral pigments, rethinking a medium that has been closely tied to the aesthetics of transparent watercolors over the past century.
‘Unpredictability’ by Lê Nguyễn Minh Như. Photo by Phạm Hồ Chí Quốc.
Lê Đ. Chung lives and works in Đắk Nông. With a multidisciplinary practice that includes painting, sculpture, installation, video, and performance, Đ. Chung examines everyday events as well as working with historical and counter-historical narratives.
‘following the stone wall and we found an electric generator…’ by Lê Đ. Chung. Photo by Phạm Hồ Chí Quốc.
Images courtesy of Rare Sea.
Visit Rare Sea at 3 Đặng Thị Nhu, Bến Thành Ward from August 8 to October 4 to experience “fiction, fraction.” The exhibition is open 10am–6pm, Tuesday–Sunday with free admission.
