Born in 1995 in Ha Noi, Chu Nhật Quang is a young artist with a rich educational background and creative mindset. He studied painting at Santa Ana College in California, United States, from 2013 to 2018, and graduated with a Bachelor of Applied Design from RMIT University in Melbourne, Australia, in 2023.
Chu Nhật Quang's artistic thinking was formed and developed in a family environment rich in artistic tradition, combined with the influence of Western painting styles and his working experience in graphic design, animation and 3D.
From childhood, Chu Nhật Quang lived in an atmosphere steeped in art, his creativity nurtured and inspired by two generations of his elders. His grandfather, the gifted lacquer painter Chu Mạnh Chấn, had a deep passion for art and devoted himself to restoring and preserving the cultural heritage of the villages of northern Viet Nam through lacquer painting. His father, a Meritorious Artist in traditional Vietnamese water puppetry, has also made a significant contribution to preserving and developing this distinctive national art form.
An artistic flame passed down the generations
The family of artist Chu Nhật Quang is a shining example of the inheritance and development of artistic tradition from one generation to the next. His grandfather, People's Artist Chu Mạnh Chấn, a talented artist, left a lasting impression with his lacquer paintings of the landscapes of old northern Vietnamese villages. His works are not only lacquer masterpieces but also carry vivid memories, imbued with the soul of the countryside and the colours of nostalgia. For decades he devoted himself to conveying precious cultural values through invaluable paintings, leaving them as a legacy for future generations.
Artist Chu Nhật Quang and members of his family.
Chu Nhật Quang's father is the painter and water puppetry director Chu Lượng. Meritorious Artist Chu Lượng not only continued the creative path of People's Artist Chu Mạnh Chấn but also broadened it through his intense passion for Vietnamese water puppetry. A dedicated artist, he has devoted his entire life to researching, developing and preserving the traditional values of water puppetry and puppet design. The refinement and depth of each of his water puppetry works, and of the water puppets he has created, have helped to enrich Viet Nam's traditional wet-rice culture.
And then artist Chu Nhật Quang, who inherited the artistic spirit of his father and grandfather, has clothed lacquer painting in a brilliant new garb. With a modern and creative outlook, he has developed a diverse formal language, creating ground-breaking works that nonetheless retain a traditional soul. The harmonious blend of tradition and contemporaneity in his works has created a distinctive signature, helping to enrich Vietnamese lacquer art. From grandfather to father to artist Chu Nhật Quang, each carries his own vision and creative signature. They have not only created timeless artistic value but have also preserved and developed core values, so that the flame of Vietnamese identity continues to burn brightly and spread in the present and into the future.
"Gratitude"
To celebrate the 70th anniversary of the Liberation of the Capital and to honour the traditional Vietnamese craft of lacquer painting, 52 lacquer works by artist Chu Nhật Quang were selected for exhibition at the Thang Long Imperial Citadel from 5 to 15 October. The exhibition was jointly organised by the Thang Long – Ha Noi Heritage Conservation Centre, the Viet Nam Association for Vocational Education, Training and Social Work (VAVET&SOW) and Vietcom Company.
Chu Nhật Quang has received praise from many leading figures in Viet Nam's art and academic circles, including the President of the Viet Nam Writers' Association, writer Nguyễn Quang Thiều, painter Thành Chương and historian Dương Trung Quốc.
Chu Nhật Quang shared that, from the time he first became aware of the images around him, the paintings of his grandfather, painter Chu Mạnh Chấn, in the traditional lacquer style, were always a precious source that transported him to scenes of the rustic, simple countryside and became deeply imprinted in his subconscious image of his homeland. "He meticulously showed me how to construct the forms of ancient architecture in a painting throughout the creative process – from when I was a child scribbling rough sketches of village gates and shrines, to when I matured in my thinking – and then he guided me in recreating that beauty and bringing it into my paintings."
Accompanying him from the first painting to the 52nd in the exhibition "Sacred Traces" was his father, water puppetry artist Chu Lượng, who was also the teacher who inspired him to understand the cultural foundations of the country and the nation. Through painter Chu Lượng, he came into contact with rustic puppets and the stories behind them, legends bound up with the customs and traditions of Viet Nam's entire wet-rice civilisation; his father passed on to Chu Nhật Quang a love mingled with pride for this noble heritage. "To this day, my father always helps me to shape and refine my aesthetic thinking."
His mother gave him boundless energy in their beloved home – through the warm family meals she cooked, her tireless washing and housekeeping, and the way she cared for him when he was well and when he was ill. "From the day I was born, and surely forever, my mother will never stop supporting me on my creative path." Without that energy from his mother, he would not have been able to follow the path of art to this day.
"Sacred Traces" also owes much to the support of the collaborators who were with him from the very first day, when he set out to prepare the lacquer panels and paint large-format lacquer paintings of unimaginable scale and difficulty. At times things were so hard and discouraging that he wanted to give up. Then there were designer Đào Thị Thùy Trang; the team of painters Phạm Khánh Ngọc, Vũ Hà Phương Thảo, Nguyễn Quyết Tiến, Phạm Hồng Nhung, Hoàng Yến Nhi and Thiều Chí Công; Mr Đỗ Hùng Chiêu, Mr Trần Bình, Mr Nguyễn Song Nam and others, together with the craftsmen of Duyen Thai craft village, who worked without pause and encouraged and supported him. "They worked day and night, rain or shine, for five long years so that the dream of 'Sacred Traces' could become reality. Every painting in 'Sacred Traces' is steeped in the dedication of my grandfather, my father, my mother and everyone else. These words and this page cannot fully express the 'gratitude' they have sown deep within me!" said artist Chu Nhật Quang.