Starting with oil paints, pigments, and sketches, but since the 1990s, he has dedicated his passion entirely to lacquer painting – a medium that demands patience, finesse, and strong intuition. « Just being able to paint is enough to make me happy! » he once said. Behind this simple statement lies an artistic philosophy that is not pretentious or theoretical, but based solely on practice and sincerity.
Le Ngoc Linh’s paintings are not polished. He rejects refined beauty in favor of instinctive vibrations, where forms twist, are precarious, unrestrained, and full of a sense of survival. The red, black, gold, and blue blocks are polished, coated, and scratched as if touching the depths of the unconscious. The space in his paintings has no focal point – only constantly moving areas of emotion.
One of the representative works of this style is the abstract lacquer painting you provided: human and animal forms intertwined in dynamic poses, blocks of dark red, deep black, rusty yellow, and antique green intersecting not in anatomical order but according to intuitive emotion. The swirling rhythm, the twisted composition, and the textured finish make the work seem like an explosive burst of instinct, fierce yet controlled. This is not just an image, but a symbol of a primal state of survival – where humans and beasts are inseparable, where life is not rationalized but perceived through the full extent of visual intuition.
Two recurring themes in his paintings are the rickety rooftops – images like fading visual memories – and the voluptuous forms – symbols of the instinct for life, rebirth, and desire. From solar eclipses and lunar eclipses to double fire, he portrays bodily life as a distinct aesthetic boundary: instinctive but not lustful, intense but not naked.
To date, he has participated in nearly 20 exhibitions both domestically and internationally, with four notable solo exhibitions, including one at Gallery Lotus (2005), the Ho Chi Minh City Museum of Fine Arts (2017), and the « Improvisation » exhibition with artist Nguyen Tuan Duc (2010). Everywhere he has been exhibited, his paintings have been recognized for their powerful compression, strong brushstrokes, bold compositions, and yet distinctively serene quality.
Among art enthusiasts in Southern Vietnam, they still whisper to each other that Le Ngoc Linh is the master of Southern lacquer painting.
Le Ngoc Linh doesn’t create lacquer paintings to illustrate reality. He uses lacquer as an internal dialogue – each layer of color, each polishing step is a step into his being. His paintings are not easy to understand, but once encountered, viewers are drawn into layers of subtle vibrations: rhythm in the distortion, roar in the silence.
He doesn’t speak much. But it is precisely this dedicated, quiet, and sincere approach to his artistic work that has made Le Ngoc Linh a respected figure in the professional world – a keeper of the flame for the meticulous and profound spirit of lacquer painting.
