“Paint – Travel – Tre: A Journey of Discovery” is the harvest of long wanderings, a path stretching from the wind-caressed plateaus to the fertile river deltas, from the mist-veiled northern mountains down to the southernmost tip of Ca Mau. Most of the 91 displayed artworks were painted en plein air (outdoor) during Tre’s journeys between 2022 and 2025.

Đọc phiên bản Tiếng Việt của bài viết.

Without grand canvases or elaborate setups, he worked simply with water colour, paper, and brush, allowing beauty to emerge through the quiet process of travelling, observing, feeling, and distilling. More than a painter’s path, this is a journey across the cultural soul of a homeland. Each stretch of land holds not only its contours on the map but layers upon layers of stories, quietly settled through the sediment of time like rivers flowing beneath the earth.

From that odyssey, four chapters of this exhibition emerged: Wondrous Landscapes, The Breath of the Land, Flourishing Cities, and Enduring Heritage. Like waves folding into one another, they guide the viewer from the primal pulse of nature to the distilled essence of a nation’s spirit. 

The first chapter, Wondrous Landscapes, nature’s own poetry. Nature rises like a grand symphony of birth and decay, vast and untamed, a realm where everything begins in boundlessness. Nature here is not scenery, it is origin.

Then, where rivers meander and fields open wide, people find their ground. In Breath of the Land, Tre captures the warm, breathing rhythm of villages – the scent of straw, smoke curling from kitchen fires, children’s voices threading through the wind. Here, the earth and the people breathe as one.

But life is a river – it does not stand still. From quiet fields, we step into the surge of Flourishing Cities: Lights, skyscrapers, noise – layers of disruption cover the urban landscape. Tre observes the transformation and, beneath the chaos, finds the delicate beauty that refuses to be erased. A land’s strength lies in its power to change without losing itself. Only what is real and resonant becomes Enduring Heritage – the vessel carrying memory across generations.

If each region were a living being, then nature would be their appearance. It labors in the fields, learns in the city, and distills its soul in the quiet of legacy. That being has its own character and identity. The North stands as a venerable elder, wise and weathered by history. The Central land, austere and storm-bitten, is resilient. The South, open-hearted, dances with the new.

Identity is not a surface, not a stone, not an overnight creation. It is a weaving of countless threads, layer upon layer. From those layers, the soul of Vietnam takes form – not in a single region, but in the heartbeat of three. Each beats as a single heart in the shape of an S.

Event Information:

Venue: Lotus Gallery, No. 12-13, N1 Street, Tân Thuận, Ho Chi Minh City
Exhibition dates: November 15 – December 7, 2025
Opening reception: November 15, 2025, from 17:00 to 20:00
Visiting hours: Daily, from 09:00 to 18:00

Each painting in this exhibition is a fragment, together portraying Vietnam’s soul in all its depth and diversity.

Thus, “Paint – Travel – Tre” is not merely an art exhibition of images, it is a walk home – to roots, to memory, to the bond that ties one life to a community. The paintings open like windows, and behind each frame lies a history of layering, transformation, and renewal.

In that flow, we recognize ourselves, not as outsiders looking in, but as pieces of the mosaic that shape the soul of a people.

Venturing into new materials, Tre continues his path, exploring the country through art. Perhaps these scenes will fade in time, yet something endures: the nation’s essential values, the ever-beating heart of the land, remains, reborn again and again, like a river that never stops flowing.

ABOUT THE ARTIST

Đinh Quang Hải (Tre), born in 1977 on Hàng Tre Street in Hanoi, found his passion for painting from an early age while watching masters like Bùi Xuân Phái and Lê Cửu sketch the old quarters. A graduate of the Lacquer Painting Department at the University of Industrial Fine Arts in 2001, Tre first built a successful career in programming, photography, and event organization before returning to painting in 2016.

For him, “traveling and painting” are two inseparable acts — each journey becomes a watercolor diary. Currently a member of the International Watercolor Society (IWS), he has participated in numerous exhibitions in Vietnam and abroad, including notable solo and group shows such as “Beloved Xứ Đoài” (Đường Lâm, 2024), “Life” (Six Senses Côn Đảo, 2023), and “Revival” (Lotus Gallery, 2022).

His works embody a sense of freedom and spontaneity while remaining deeply infused with love for the landscapes and people of Vietnam.

ORGANISER

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

PARTNER

CARA Lighting Solutions is a leading provider of comprehensive lighting solutions with over 25 years of experience in Vietnam’s lighting industry.

PRESS CONTACT

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