Artist: Hồng Quân
- Born: 1957, Saigon
Exhibition Participation
- Annual Creative Camp Report Exhibitions (Ho Chi Minh City Fine Arts Association): 20 times
- Vietnam Fine Arts Association Exhibitions: 7 times
- Solo Exhibitions: 6 times
- 888 Exhibitions: 7 times
- Vietnam People’s Army Day Exhibitions: 18 times
- International Exhibitions: 4 times
- Group Exhibitions: 28 times
- Watercolor Group Exhibitions: 8 times
- Nhân Ái Charity Exhibitions: 11 times
- Exhibitions in An Giang: 1 time
- Exhibitions in Can Tho: 1 time
Awards
- B Prize, Ho Chi Minh City Union of Literature and Arts Associations (no A Prize awarded).
Solo Exhibitions
- Rivers and Waters of the Mekong Delta
(October 28 – November 6, 2019) – Ho Chi Minh City Fine Arts Association - What Is Most Beloved
(January 7 – 13, 2022) – Ho Chi Minh City Fine Arts Association - Sunny Days
(January 5 – 14, 2023) – Lê Bảo Minh Corporation - Hawaii – Watercolor Paintings by Hồng Quân
(August 5 – 15, 2023) - Shadows of Serenity
(May 6 – June 20, 2024) – Quang San Museum - Watercolor Paintings by Hồng Quân
(October 26 – November 1, 2024) – Ho Chi Minh City Museum of Fine Arts - Dawn of the Delta
(July 5 – 15, 2025) – Maii Art Space
Artist’s Statement – Hồng Quân
I was born in the North, but my parents’ hometown is in Đồng Tháp, An Giang, in the Mekong Delta. My childhood was spent following the journeys of the art troupe where my father and mother performed music and theatre after they had regrouped to the North. Later, I studied fine arts in Ho Chi Minh City and then returned to the Delta, working with the Đồng Tháp art troupe as a stage designer, responsible for painting backdrops, signage, and creating mobile stage sets.
Those wandering years left me with a very particular kind of memory: the memory of making art amidst everyday life, of rivers and water, yellow lights, and the sound of oars cutting through the night. These images became the spiritual material running through my paintings—especially when I began experimenting with watercolor.
I trained in oil painting at the Ho Chi Minh City University of Fine Arts. Back then, my works were full of heavy textures, bold colors, and strong compositions. But the more I painted, the lighter I became—lighter in my hand, lighter in my heart. Then one day, I picked up watercolors. The transparency of the pigments, the natural bleeding of color on paper—like water seeping into the earth—took me back to the southern land.
The Mekong Delta, to me, is not noisy. It is the quiet flow of water, boats weaving through nipa palms, the crow of a rooster in the golden tilt of the afternoon sun. I was not born there, yet every time I return, it feels like coming home.
Watercolor is my way of slowing down, breathing with the rhythm of the river, preserving what might otherwise slip away with time. I don’t strive to make my paintings “perfectly” crafted. I only hope to capture the soul of the river land—rustic, sincere, and tinged with a quiet sadness.
I do not paint to beautify life. I paint to preserve the shadows of home, the glow of light, the old boats, the silver hair by the riverside, the dawns of the Delta.
I believe that even a few strokes—if they are honest—can be enough to make someone pause. As if stopping by a small canal, seeing their reflection in the water, and hearing their own heart fall silent.
Watercolor is the way I tell stories. And the Mekong Delta is a story I can never stop telling.
Nguyễn Hồng Quân
Saigon, June 25, 2025
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