Life & English: “Japan In Me”

In celebration of the Japan - Vietnam Friendship Year 2013, the Japan Foundation Center for Cultural Exchange inVietnam presents a lacquer painting exhibition “Japan In Me” by Saeko Ando in Hanoi.

Son Mai lacquer painting is a truly unique and original art form that is shared with the rest of the world by its Vietnamese creators. Saeko Ando, an artist from Japan - a country with a long and established lacquer tradition - has lived in Hanoi and pursued her passion as a Son Mai artist for 18 years and has mastered the art here in Vietnam.

Saeko’s works depict aspects of life in the natural world that people usually fail to notice. Her command of Son Mai techniques, use of rich colours and bold compositions, and creation of elaborate textures, enable her to transform these into enchanting characters each with their own stories.

She creates the illusion of texture using colours and materials that are built up in complex layers until they look almost three-dimensional. This layering suggests that traditional Son Mai paintings are impossible to sand to a flat finish, yet Saeko’s paintings are astonishingly flat. This is just one way in which she challenges established theory about Vietnamese lacquer work.

The exhibition is organized from 09 November  to 01 December  2013.

(Source: Japan Foundation Center for Cultural Exchange in Vietnam)