About us

Boi Tran Garden, also known as Boi Tran Art Gallery, is not only one of the pioneering privately owned art galleries in Vietnam but the very first and only one in the onetime Imperial city of Hue proud to be an exquisite international compound for art, antiques, centuries-old architecture and later Hue-era culinary culture which gave Hue its reputation as a food capital continues today.

Founded in 1995, Boi Tran Garden, along with Minh Chau Art Gallery (2000-2005) in Hanoi, has a heritage and reputation for connoisseurship and exclusive bespoke service for buying and selling art as well as offers an inviting experience for Hue's traditional fine cuisine and history-related stories.

BOI TRAN: 'ARTIST, CHEF AND CREATOR OF HER MAGNIFICENT GARDEN'

Born in Imperial Hue City, in central Vietnam, a city that suffered more than engendered the painful political events of the 20th century, Boi Tran knew nothing of the influences – positive or negative – that nourished “the Schools”.

Nestled on Thien An Hill since 1998 and relocated to Kim Son Hill in 2022, proud but comforting, where the wind frightens the centuries-old pine trees, and the bashful, even prudish, flowers triumph over the rain, a place some leading Vietnamese artists’ masterpieces such as Victor Tardieu, Vu Cao Dam, Tran Quang Tran (Ngym), To Ngoc Van, Hoang Tich Chu, Nguyen Tu Nghiem, Tran Dong Luong, Ton That Dao, Nguyen Tien Chung, Nguyen Do Cung, Bui Xuan Phai, Diep Minh Chau, Nguyen Sang, Nguyen Trung, and others housed in a more than 100-year-old mansion blended with French Indochina influences.

Boi Tran’s Edenlike garden in Hue bears witness to this: diversity and elegance, but for simplicity as well, a lotus or an epiphyllum, whose flower opens during the night before quickly vanishing, communicates this. The garden would not exist without Boi Tran, yet, Boi Tran the painter would not exist without the garden.

Amongst many dignitaries who have graced Boi Tran Garden is Anthony Bourdain who featured Boi Tran and her royal courses on CNN Parts Unknown in 2014.

THE CALL FROM WITHIN

To the best of my ability as an artist, I’d like to express my greatest gratitude for what life has graciously offered me over time. The generosity I am granted and thus being thankful for might very well be as simple, yet full of blessings, as a prayer to our sacred Mother, unconditional maternity, or the graceful beauty of nature such as the first day-breaking sunrays or residual dew of the night.

I treasure these precious moments like the miracles joyfully lighting up my life.

Boi Tran

Management

Minh Chau — Director

MINH CHAU

San Diego-based, Minh Chau hails from a family of art enthusiasts in Hue. She was the owner of Minh Chau Art Gallery at 7 Ly Dao Thanh Street, Hanoi circa 2000. The gallery returned to her roots with redecoration in traditional architectural styles. Minh Chau has been collecting paintings for more than a dozen years and her collection includes Nguyen Gia Tri, Tran Van Can, Bui Xuan Phai, Nguyen Sang, Nguyen Trung, Dinh Cuong, Sy Ngoc, Tran Luu Hau, Diep Minh Chau, Boi Tran, and others.

Thuc Doan / Bem — Vice Director, Art Researcher at Vietnamese Art Archive (www.thucdoan.com)

THUC DOAN / BEM

Vice Director, Art Researcher
[email protected]

Brought up in a very great spirit of culture and creativity, Thuc Doan served as an independent Vietnamese Topics Advisor, Translator, and Interpreter, her expertise is to develop private art collections, offering curatorial, consultancy and services for collectors, buyers and consignors at Vietnamese Art Archive (www.thucdoan.com) providing reference catalogues, scholarly translated articles and insightful information for Christie’s, Art Agenda S.E.A. and other private collectors, locally and internationally.

Boi Tran — Artist, Senior Consultant

BOI TRAN

Artist, Consultant
[email protected]

Born in Hue, Vietnam, Boi Tran is a member of the Vietnam Fine Art Association. Since 1996, she has participated in several exhibitions in Hue and also had her works displayed in private collections locally and internationally. Boi Tran excels in oil and lacquer paintings, and her works often portray Vietnamese women, maternity, nature, and religion. Boi Tran — the only female Vietnamese artist has her paintings exhibited and sold in Sotheby’s, Christie’sBonhams, Ravenel and other renowned auction houses.

Photographer Jean-Baptiste Huynh’s Message to Bem from Paris

Endless Reminiscences about Luu Cong Nhan

Diep Minh Chau’s Drawings of Boi Tran and Minh Chau with His Inscriptions

The Last Handwriting of Bui Xuan Phai Before His Quietus in 1988

Truong Be: A Quest For The Absolute and His Handwriting to Boi Tran

“Nature and People from an Old Outlook” Exhibition, Invitation and a Handwritten Note of Viet Hai and Tran Luu Hau to Boi Tran

Dinh Cuong’s “A Piece of Poetry to a Lady on Thien An Hill on a Rainy Day” in 2001

Le Ba Dang’s Handwritten Letter to Boi Tran in 1999

Epilogue by Trinh Cong Son on the Grand Opening of Boi Tran Art Gallery in 1995

Prologue by Buu Y on the Grand Opening of Boi Tran Art Gallery in 1995

Nguyen Trung’s Expression on Boi Tran’s Exhibition: I and the Call from My Within

Nguyen Trung’s Preamble on the Exhibition of Paintings: Hue in 1996

Ngo Manh Duc (B. 1941), son of Le Thi Luu (Vietnamese, 1911-1988) born on 1 January 1941, which he enunciates as “1.1.41” with his constant smile, speaking softly and slowly which never fails to grab the listener’s attention. He was brought up in a wonderful atmosphere of painters and intellectuals (often of Vietnamese origin), and this only helped to cement the ideals and traditions of family, close friends and kinships.

Words of Architect Ngo Manh Duc, Son of Le Thi Luu to Boi Tran and Her Work of Art

Harper’s Bazaar: A Great Hue Destination

Christie’s: Women in Art from the XVI to the XXI Century

Éternité Magazine: Cloud Landing Collection by Designer Tran Thien Khanh and Photographer Tran Dinh Thuc Doan

Royal Cuisine – Cultural Interview: The Hue To Go by KF Seetoh

Anne-Solenne Hatte and “La Cuisine De Bà” or “Tasting Vietnam”

“Incubating Culture in Vietnam and Hue’s Rebirth as Vietnam’s Center of Art & Heritage” Hosted by Harvard Kennedy School, Fulbright University Vietnam and Boi Tran Garden

Ravenel: Select Modern & Contemporary Art, Vietnamese Modern Art

General Secretary, Germany Minister of Digital Affairs and Transport Volker Wissing’s Letter to Artist Boi Tran

“A Perfect Evening of Companionship” with Skirball Cultural Center Founding President and CEO Uri D Herscher

Zhang Zhi Yong — President, Shanghai Pujiang Southeast Asia Culture and Art Exchange Center where “Nguyen Trung Works” published on 26 December 2020, Mrs Zhang Jing celebrated Boi Tran's Solo Exhibition: Le Rêve Qui Veille, 26 October 2017.

Shanghai Pujiang Southeast Asia Culture and Art Exchange Center President Zhang Zhi Yong Celebrates Boi Tran’s Solo Exhibition: Le Rêve Qui Veille

Boi Tran: “Le Rêve Qui Veille” by Christie’s Senior Expert Jean-François Hubert

William Adams, chairman of the National Endowment for the Humanities and a Vietnam veteran, moderates a panel discussion, “The Troops: A View from the Front Lines” on Thursday, April 28, 2016, at the LBJ Presidential Library. The panel discussion was part of the LBJ library’s three-day Vietnam War Summit.

LBJ Library photo by Jay Godwin 04/28/2016

Fine Dining Deepened in Endless Conversation with Mr William Drea “Bro” Adams and Mr Joe Boulos

Christie’s: Se Souvenir Des Belles Choses – A Curated Collection of Vietnamese Art

Cultural Exchange: The Combination of Hue Royal Refined Music and Hue Culinary Culture

Heritage Magazine: Best of Both Worlds

Anthony Bourdain Parts Unknown: Vivacious in Vietnam

A Fork in Asia’s Road: The Hue Home by John Krich

Thanh Nien News: Complete Transcendence

DestinAsian Magazine: Hungry for Hue

“Thank you for opening your house to us but furthermore, your heart” – Gilbert Montagné

Travel+Leisure Magazine: Vietnamese Food – The Ultimate Food Guide

Boi Tran ‘Madonna’, the First Time Presented and Phenomenally Hammered at Sotheby’s Hong Kong in 2008

Artist Luu Ly & Bui Xuan Phai Sketchbook: A True Sense of Nostalgia at Boi Tran Art Gallery

Tran Ninh Ho’s “For the one I miss” and “A Lady and Lotus” by Boi Tran

Boi Tran, Ladies and Flowers by Nguyen Trong Tao

Asian Art News: Small and Miniature Paintings by the Masters at Minh Chau Art Gallery

Minh Chau Art Gallery’s Exhibition: Small and Miniature Paintings by the Masters

Timeout Magazine: The Divine Form

Christie’s: Southeast Asian Pictures’ Letter to Boi Tran Art Gallery in 1999