Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, 30 April 2026 – Lotus Gallery and Hôtel des Arts Saigon – MGallery Collection are pleased to present Ầu Ơ – Our Dearest!, a group exhibition by artists Phan Linh Bảo Hạnh, Nguyễn Thị Thu Hiền, Devon Nguyễn, and Nguyễn Ngọc Thạch.

Location: Hôtel des Arts Saigon – MGallery Collection, 76-78 Nguyen Thi Minh Khai, Xuan Hoa, Ho Chi Minh
Exhibition duration: 07/05/2026-13/05/2026
Opening event: 07/05/2026, from 06:00 to 09:00 PM
Opening time: Daily, from 09:00 AM to 06:00 PM

Đọc phiên bản Tiếng Việt của bài viết.

Preface

“Our Dearest!” opens many lullabies, a soft rhythm easing a child into sleep. It carries no fixed meaning, yet lingers into adulthood, like an echo of where we begin. From that familiar sound, the exhibition Our Dearest! turns to the mother as life’s first anchor. Setting aside grand narratives about the origins of humankind, it returns to a more intimate beginning: the mother.

A life begins as a minute cell, growing beneath the mother’s skin, sustained by what her body shares. And another part grows too: through lullabies, through voice, through touch, as poet Nguyễn Duy once wrote:

“…I walk a lifetime, long and far,
yet never reach your lullabies.
You sang me truths of how things are:
milk fed my flesh,
song kept my soul alive…”

On a broader scale, human life is sustained by both the mother and the surrounding environment. Air, water, and light nourished us in quieter ways, even never hold or cradle. This sensibility runs through the exhibition in different forms.

Bringing together four artists: Phan Linh Bảo Hạnh, Nguyễn Thị Thu Hiền, Devon Nguyễn, and Nguyễn Ngọc Thạch, their works, though varied in material and visual language, share an attention to the bond between human beings and their origins.

In Phan Linh Bảo Hạnh’s works, young women at the cusp of youth appear both clear and reserved. A restrained palette of pale tones suggests fragility and purity, while their steady gazes reveal a quiet, enduring strength.

For Nguyễn Thị Thu Hiền, artistic practice becomes a personal narrative of motherhood. Working with acrylic on dó paper mounted on canvas, she uses a patient, precise method. The porous surface holds each layer of pigment, marking time and emotion; the process itself reflects motherhood.

In Devon Nguyễn’s ceramic works, femininity appears through flowers rather than the human figure. Drawing from personal experience while touching on shared sensibilities, her forms suggest a common state, shifting, adapting, and unfolding in distinct ways, each with its own rhythm.

Nguyễn Ngọc Thạch works with silk as a surface of memory, where sacred tales and folk narratives are reconfigured into a non-linear structure. Images emerge as overlapping, recurring layers, suggesting a memory in constant renewal. The boundary between the real and the mythical blurs, where origin is no longer fixed, but ongoing.

Though distinct, these practices share a common rhythm, like a quiet lullaby. Moving between personal and collective memory, the exhibition opens a space where the familiar can be felt again. Like a lullaby, Our Dearest! does not ask to be fully understood, only to be listened to.

The exhibition is a collaboration between Lotus Gallery and MGallery – Hôtel des Arts Saigon, on the occasion of Mother’s Day. It will be on view at Café des Beaux-Arts from 07 May 2026 to 17 May 2026, daily from 09:00 AM to 06:00 PM, with free admission.

About the Artists

Phan Linh Bảo Hạnh (b. 1981) is a distinctive voice in Vietnamese contemporary art. She graduated from Huế University of Fine Arts in 2007. Her paintings focus on portraying women with a quiet, contemplative beauty imbued with the “subtle resonance” of the former imperial capital, where gentleness and reserve blend with emotional depth.

With an expressive brushwork and a refined color palette, her works create a space that is both real and dreamlike, where viewers can sense the interplay between tradition and modern sensibility. Bảo Hạnh has participated in numerous exhibitions both in Vietnam and internationally, across Asia, Europe, and North America. Her works are included in various private and public collections worldwide.

Devon Nguyễn (b. 1987) is a contemporary artist working in abstract painting and ceramic sculpture. She graduated in Fashion Design from Central Saint Martins (UK), a background that has shaped her sensitivity to form, materiality, and visual storytelling in her multidisciplinary practice.

Devon’s work is guided by intuition, transforming “inner landscapes” into tactile and poetic structures. Her works often feature a restrained, muted palette, delving deeply into human experience across different material realms.

Nguyễn Thị Thu Hiền (b. 1990) graduated with a specialization in lacquer painting. She pursues a multidisciplinary practice, combining traditional techniques with acrylic on dó paper mounted on canvas, creating a style that is gentle and emotionally rich.

Her work focuses on portraying Vietnamese women, especially women from the South, highlighting their warmth, subtlety, and connection to family life and festive cultural traditions. Through her art, Thu Hiền expresses a desire to honor family values and the enduring beauty of Vietnamese women in contemporary life. She has held two solo exhibitions: in 2022 at the Ho Chi Minh City Fine Arts Association and in 2023 at The World Art Space Gallery.

Nguyễn Ngọc Thạch (b.1991 in Quang Ngai, Vietnam) graduated from the Ho Chi Minh City University of Fine Arts in 2016 and primarily works with oil and acrylic on canvas. His practice delves into inner landscapes, personal memory, and human relationships, while also critically engaging with social structures, systems of power, and forms of injustice that have been normalized in everyday life. For Thạch, painting is both a wandering through memory and an intimate self-dialogue on issues that carry internal and socio-political significance.

He has presented his work in numerous solo and group exhibitions, including Listening to the Forest, Light Spectrum at Ồ Art Bar (2024); Vãng Cảnh at the Ho Chi Minh City Fine Arts Association (2023); Broken Relationships at The Factory Contemporary Art Center (2019); Ồ Ạt Festival (2025); the Young Artists Biennale at the Ho Chi Minh City Museum of Fine Arts (2017); and the Asian Students and Young Artists Art Festival & Hidden Artists Festival in Seoul, South Korea (2016), among various independent contemporary art initiatives across Vietnam.

Organisers

Founded in 1991, Lotus Gallery is dedicated to the mission of bringing Vietnamese art closer to art lovers around the world.

Hôtel des Arts Saigon – MGallery Collection,  a member of MGallery Collection, is designed for those who love to live and travel independently. This boutique hotel is a haven of art, style, and culture in the heart of energetic Ho Chi Minh City. Combining the classical charm of “Indochine Française” with a sense of timeless chic that only MGallery can provide, Hôtel des Arts Saigon is perfect for people who travel with style and seek a hotel that exudes local character. Passionately independent, this exquisite Boutique Hotel fuses distinctive local flavor with classical charm and contemporary facilities to create memorable stays.

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For further information, please contact

Lotus Gallery Representative
Katty Vi Do | +84 985 795 643 (Zalo, WhatsApp)
Email: kattyvido@lotusgallery.vn

Hôtel des Arts Saigon – MGallery Collection Representative
Thao Nguyen | +84 902 515 192 (Zalo, WhatsApp)
Email: thanhthao.nguyen@accor.com