Painter Dang Mau Tuu presents Painting Exhibition ‘Traces amid the Red Dust’

At 73, Vietnamese painter Dang Mau Tuu continues to forge his artistic journey with his 11th solo exhibition, Traces Amid the Red Dust (Lưu Dấu Hồng Trần), from 20 to 26 October 2026, at the Ho Chi Minh City Fine Arts Association.

“From the moment I was conceived in my mother’s womb, I came into this world we call the Red Dust. I Have never actually seen red dust covering the earth, yet in my mind, it seems to be everywhere, woven into every corner of our existence.”, Dang Mau Tuu shared.

Born in Binh Dinh, yet he has spent most of his life in Hue, the land that has profoundly shaped his sensibility and nurtured his artistic spirit. Since graduating from the Hue National College of Fine Arts in 1972, he has devoted more than five decades to painting, making art an enduring part of his life.

“I love colour, I love to draw and paint. Through my works, I have recorded the traces left by love and dislike, and my reflections on the things I have encountered throughout this existence. Some experiences have gone deep enough to become indelible marks that can not easily be forgotten. So I painted. Whether the paintings are beautiful or not, whether they are good or bad, that is simply part of life. What matter is that I am content because they are mine. They are evidence that I, this particular self, have existed in this world, here and now, truly and unmistakably. I have therefore chosen the title ‘Traces amid the Red Dust’ for this selection of paintings created over the past several years.”

For him, life brings both fortune and misfortune, and troubles of all sizes are simply part of the ordinary course of things. Let them pass. Let other love or hate, praise or criticize. “I tell myself simply to live with love and to do what I believe is reasonable and in keeping with the way of the world. I remind my heart to remain calm, to keep walking to wander freely, , to hum and sing, to play with colours. Why worry, when above us the clouds drift across the sky, and the sun and rain continue their endless seasonal changes? And so, I have recorded my feelings on whatever materials I could find., giving them and form and colour. In those moments, I know that I was the present, that I was here, living in the world.”

Through this exhibition, he shares the traces of his journey and through his paintings, everyone may come to understand one another a little more deeply. “And paintings also remind me that I am here, that I exist, even if I am nothing more than a tiny speck of dust.”

Some prominent artworks in the exhibition ‘Traces amid the Red Dust”.