Exhibition «Sắc Nước Hương Trời» (The Hues of Land and Sky)

   Markets, festivals, riverbanks and highland villages painted in bold vermilion and indigo: Lotus Gallery in Ho Chi Minh City presents a solo show by painter Mai San, with works made between the 1960s and the 1990s. Think of it as a visual diary of decades on the road.

   The Vietnamese title «Sắc Nước Hương Trời» is rendered by the gallery as «The Hues of Land and Sky». For Mai San, culture is not something to study but something lived: markets, festivals, customs, beliefs and daily routines. Working in ink and gouache on paper, quick-drying and suited to direct sketching, she recorded the places, people and moments she encountered.

   The exhibition unfolds in four chapters that trace four elements of cultural identity, land, people, customs and belief:
— Clouds Upon the Peak
— Of Grace and Beauty
— Along Rivers and Wharves
— Roads Toward the Sacred

   Rather than strict naturalism, Mai San lets memory and emotion choose the colours: vermilion, indigo, vivid green and luminous yellow sit side by side at full strength, so her villages and markets carry the lively rhythm of highland community life.

   The show is for lovers of late 20th-century Vietnamese painting, for anyone curious about the country's regional cultures and for fans of sketching.

   The gallery is open daily. Drop by Lotus Gallery and leaf through Mai San's diary in colour.