Exhibition “Dialogue with Hàng Trống Paintings”

Within the Hanoi Creative Design Festival 2026, the exhibitions of “Stories of Communal Houses in the City” are the focus of the activity series “Stories of Crafts through Streets,” introducing the history of craft development from village to street in the old Thăng Long – Kẻ Chợ. “Dialogue with Hàng Trống Paintings” introduces the Hàng Trống folk painting craft and displays works inspired by this painting genre in diverse forms and materials such as painting, relief, photography, lacquer, silk, and woodblock prints… The exhibition at Nam Hương Communal House, a communal house associated with the monument complex of King Lê Thái Tổ by Hoàn Kiếm Lake, becomes the setting for a dialogue between heritage and contemporary creativity.

In this exhibition, the public has the opportunity to view the six-painting set “Tiger” by Vũ Dân Tân - one of the pioneering figures of Vietnamese contemporary art. These are early-period works in Vũ Dân Tân’s creations; he both paid deep respect to tradition and constantly explored structure and experimented on the basis of what he discovered, and made improvisational variations, laying the foundation for a unique contemporary visual language – an element that shaped his later groundbreaking career. Viewers also encounter the “Five Tigers” image through Nguyễn Xuân Lam’s photo reliefs – when the image in folk paintings with the traditional flat form is transformed into multi-layered reliefs, creating an intersection between painting and sculpture; “White Peacock” on silk by An Nguyễn, or “Carp Watching the Moon” through different creative approaches in the works of Ngọc Hà and Trương Hoàng Hải.

In addition, the exhibition also features diverse works created in many materials and forms by Nguyễn Thế Sơn, Phạm Thuỷ Tiên, Hoài Giang, Bùi Thảo My, Đặng Mỹ Linh, and Bùi Kim Hiền, as a way for contemporary artists to continue expanding approaches to Hanoi’s unique traditional painting genre. Exhibition participants can try painting on silk and dó paper in the workshop “In the Hàng Trống Flower Garden” on 14, 15, 21, and 22 November by Giang Kawako, or practice “Hàng Trống Paintings: Cut and Collage” on 20, 21, 25, and 27 November with Đặng Mỹ Linh, and a woodblock print workshop of the 12 zodiac animals on 21 and 22 November by artisan Công Đạt.