Nguyen Bach Dan
Nguyen Bach Dan sets herself apart from other Vietnamese contemporary artists by forging her own path and staying true to her creative style. She persistently embraces xuyen chi paper (calligraphy paper) as the material for her work. Her paintings only consists of two colors – black and white – yet they contain the whole vastness of emotions, feelings, humanity and life itself. She paints nature in its rawest essence: forests filled with sun rays and moonlight, bustling leaves and soft snow, quiet brooks, and marshes. Her fusion of Western painting style with a traditional Eastern material (the xuyen chi paper) creates a unique signature for Bach Dan’s artwork. In her paintings, one can endlessly unveil layer after layer of complexity, sophistication and depth. It is as if the view is taken to an otherworldly realm, boundless, immense and meditative - a retreat for the souls to seek tranquility, transcendence and perhaps answers to life questions. Bach Dan is unyielding in her pursuit of a challenging creative path even till her last breath. She left behind a legacy of imposing artworks that touch the audience in their deepest inner being – pieces of arts that will continue to bear fruits of beauty and flowers of philosophy for generations to come.