In celebration of the Japan – Vietnam Friendship Year 2013, the Japan Foundation Center for Cultural Exchange in Vietnam proudly presents a lacquer painting exhibition “Japan In Me” by Saeko Ando in Hanoi.

Son Mai lacquer painting is a truly unique and original art form that is shared with the rest of the world by its Vietnamese creators. Saeko Ando, an artist from Japan – a country with a long and established lacquer tradition – has lived in Hanoi and pursued her passion as a Son Mai artist for 18 years and has mastered the art here in Vietnam.

Saeko’s works depict aspects of life in the natural world that people usually fail to notice. Her command of Son Mai techniques, use of rich colours and bold compositions, and creation of elaborate textures, enable her to transform these into enchanting characters each with their own stories.

She creates the illusion of texture using colours and materials that are built up in complex layers until they look almost three-dimensional. This layering suggests that traditional Son Mai paintings are impossible to sand to a flat finish, yet Saeko’s paintings are astonishingly flat. This is just one way in which she challenges established theory about Vietnamese lacquer work.

Saeko has a mission: to introduce the fascinating art of Son Mai to the world through her exhibitions, lectures, and the symposia she attends. Because of her devotion to the Son Mai craft and her profound understanding of Vietnamese culture, she has often appeared in magazines and on television in Japan and Vietnam. She is the first foreign member accepted by Hanoi Art Association and her “Vietnameseness” has always caught people’s attention.

At this exhibition – Japan in Me – Saeko offers a new insight into herself, proudly presenting, through her work, her Japanese side. For the first time, her “Japaneseness”, its philosophy and aesthetic, comes under the spotlight. Although the materials and techniques Saeko uses are almost all Vietnamese, art critics and fellow artists agree that Saeko’s Japanese Soul exudes from her work. Along with her art, the exhibition will offer a series of short essays Saeko has written to explain the secrets of her works.

*image (left)
Red Warrior, 2012
lacquer on wood, 60x60cm
© Saeko Ando