The red and the black: Lacquer paintings Vestige of Ancient Lotus (top) and Echo from Battlefields by Vo Xuan Huy.

HCM CITY — An exhibition of paintings by a Hue artist is expected to offer HCM City art-lovers a new insight into lacquer works.

The 21 works by Vo Xuan Huy on display at the Echo exhibition at the Gallery Cactus, depicting old cultural features, guns and bullets, environmental issues, are unique in that their surfaces are chapped, rough, and wrinkled.

They are in a blaze of grey green, dark blue, red, brown, and other colours and offer a dazzling spectacle.

Huy told Viet Nam News before the opening: "It [the Echo solo-exhibition] reflects my effort to make over the traditional concept of lacquer.

"Modern times require lacquer to be in a new form (way)."

The 42-year-old artist, a lecturer at the Hue College of Fine Arts, has held many solo exhibitions in Ha Noi, Quang Tri, Hue, Hoi An, and HCM City, and group exhibitions in Laos, Thailand, Singapore, France, and the Netherlands.

The Echo will remain open till August 11. Gallery Cactus is at 17/12 Nguyen Huy Tuong Street, Binh Thanh District. — VNS