Sắc Xuân
The Spring
Exhibition · Saigon, 2025
Ceramic works · Spring · Bien Hoa heritage · Floral · Ancient · Culture
Spring blossoms emerge with renewed vitality, carrying hopes of prosperity, reunion, and new beginnings. Chrysanthemums evoke happiness and abundance, while the white apricot blossom – blooming after the harshness of winter – embodies resilience and quiet strength.
Rooted in the visual language of traditional Biên Hòa ceramics, The Spring transforms these timeless symbols of nature into enduring ceramic forms, where seasonal beauty is preserved through material, fire, and craftsmanship.
About the Collection
The Spring continues Lê Trung Hiếu’s exploration of the ceramic heritage of Biên Hòa, reinterpreting its traditional techniques and visual language through a contemporary artistic practice. Drawing from hand-forming, ash and stone glazes, and wood firing, the collection reflects a dialogue between craftsmanship, material, and cultural memory.
Inspired by classical motifs such as nhất chi mai (white apricot blossom), trailing chrysanthemums, and floral-and-bird compositions, the works evoke renewal, resilience, prosperity, and fulfillment. These motifs also reflect the distinctive encounter between Vietnamese traditions and French Art Deco influences that shaped Biên Hòa ceramics in the early twentieth century.
At its heart, The Spring explores the tension between fragility and permanence: fleeting blossoms are transformed through clay, glaze, and fire into forms made to endure. Through this transformation, traditional craftsmanship becomes not simply a legacy of the past, but a living language for contemporary expression.
Exhibition: The Spring
Venue: Hội Mỹ Thuật thành phố Hồ Chí Minh, Việt Nam
City: Sài Gòn, Việt Nam
Year: 2025
Photography: Nguyễn Kim Thoa