Visitors at the “November” group’s HCMC exhibition

Two new painting collections exhibited in Ho Chi Minh City, one by a fine arts lecturer and one by a group of amateur artists, reveal completely different takes on modern art.

Nguyen Xuan Toan’s works depict old Hanoi while Au Khoa Toan paints buffalos, lotuses and countryside girls.

Nguyen Hoai Nam focuses on women and femininity while Dang Cong Huan’s two-meter-long oil painting depicts lively and celebratory characters singing and dancing.

Trinh Nhat Anh, a former teacher at the HCMC Conservatory of Music and a new member of the group, has contributed bright still-lifes.

Student Tran Thi Thu Minh is exhibiting for the first time. Her abstract works are rough but soothing combination colors.

The exhibition opened last week and will continue through Thursday at the association at 218A Pasteur Street, District 3.

In the other local exhibition, Nguyen Quang Vinh’s Cap nhat (Update) puts a modern twist on Leonardo da Vinci’s Mona Lisa.

Vinh, a HCMC University of Fine Arts lecturer, said, “I want to recreate a familiar image or an idol and use it to describe modern life with a new view and aesthetic.”

The exhibition features 17 different versions of Mona Lisa using oil on canvas.

Vinh said he aims to develop the collection into a bigger exhibition in September.

The artist was born in 1963 and graduated from the University of Fine Arts in 1985 before taking a degree at the Moscow State Academic Art Institute in 1993.

“Update” will show through January 19 at Zen Gallery, 97A Nguyen Du Street, District 1.

Part of Nguyen Quang Vinh’s “Update” exhibition in Ho Chi Minh City

Reported by Quang Thi-Nghia Pham - Thanh Van