Tran Van Thao

Tran Van Thao (Vietnam, b. 1961) is one of Vietnam’s foremost abstract painters, although his subject matter is grounded and concrete. The city, his family, and surrounding landscapes are sources of inspiration as much as the vagaries of the human condition. Tran is an artist who finds beauty in the unruliness of life, and who expresses his awe of such unpredictability through abstract art. He plays with line and color, rejoicing in the possibilities as serendipitous as those that life throws in our paths. Tran’s work can be raw with primitivist markings or rich with color fields. Veils of oil paint, scumbled areas of depth, papier-mâché, collage, and brazen linear shapes are all basic ingredients of his artist repertoire. Tran Van Thao graduated from the Ho Chi Minh Fine Arts University. He currently lives and works in Ho Chi Minh City. Tran Van Thao was awarded an Asian Cultural Council Fellowship in 2001 to participate in a studio program and to observe arts activities in the United States.

Courtesy of Asian Cultural Council