Executive Board
BOI TRAN
Founder, Artist, Collector
boitran@boitran.com
Boi Tran (B. 1957) is a self-taught Vietnamese painter, collector and cultural figure based in Hue, Vietnam. Working primarily in oil and lacquer, she is known for a contemplative body of work centred on memory, femininity, spirituality and the architectural inheritance of Hue, the former imperial capital of Vietnam.
Coming to painting outside formal academic training, Boi Tran developed her practice in the years following Đổi Mới, when Vietnam’s cultural landscape opened to private galleries, independent artistic voices and international exchange. Her paintings often depict women in áo dài, devotional figures, Madonnas, angels and quiet architectural interiors, composed with stillness, restraint and a distinctly Huế sensibility.
Since the 1990s, her works have been shown in exhibitions and appeared in preview exhibitions and auction sales at international houses including Christie’s, Sotheby’s, Ravenel, Bonhams and Hindman. Selected works are held in private collections in Vietnam and abroad.
Beyond the canvas, Boi Tran has played an important role in shaping private cultural spaces in Hue. She opened Boi Tran Art Gallery in the 1990s and, on 23 March 1998, inaugurated her second gallery at the Saigon Morin Hotel in Hue, in a ceremony attended by Nguyễn Khoa Điềm, then Minister of Culture and Information, together with artists and cultural figures from across Vietnam.
Her artistic world extends into collecting, architecture and gastronomy. Through Boi Tran Garden, with sites on Thiên An Hill and Kim Sơn Hill, she has cultivated a living environment where painting, nhà rường architecture, gardens, cuisine and cultural memory meet. In 2014, this world was featured in CNN’s Anthony Bourdain: Parts Unknown, bringing wider attention to her vision of Hue as a place of art, heritage and lived refinement.
THUC DOAN
Deputy Director, Art Researcher & Archivist
thucdoan@boitran.com
Based in Hue, Vietnam, Tran Dinh Thuc Doan is Deputy Director of Boi Tran Garden (Boi Tran Art Gallery) and an independent advisor specialising in Vietnamese modern and contemporary art. Since joining Boi Tran Garden in 2010, Thuc Doan has been involved in exhibitions, archival initiatives and international cultural exchanges dedicated to Vietnamese art and heritage.
Alongside her role at Boi Tran Garden, she has worked as an independent Vietnamese Topics Advisor, Translator and Interpreter, assisting collectors, buyers and consignors in the development of private art collections. Through Vietnam Art & Global Dialogues and the Vietnamese Art Archive, she has prepared reference catalogues, translated scholarly texts and research materials for projects associated with Christie's, Art Agenda, S.E.A., Adjug'Art and private collections across Asia, Europe and America.
In 2016, Thuc Doan served as Art Advisor and Translator for Christie’s Se Souvenir Des Belles Choses: A Curated Collection of Vietnamese Art, becoming one of the first Vietnamese women to participate in a major internationally curated auction dedicated to Vietnamese art. She later collaborated with DE SARTHE Gallery, Art Agenda, S.E.A. and projects surrounding A Quest for Eternity: The Philippe Damas Collection at Christie’s Hong Kong.
In 2026, she organised Dream of Dreams at Boi Tran Garden while also participating in projects associated with Christie’s Vision of Vietnam: The Melchior Dejouany Collection auction sale in Hong Kong, Adjug’Art Auctioneer in France.
With academic training in International Business and more than a decade of experience across research, translation, archival documentation and curatorial advisory, Thuc Doan continues to work closely with collectors and institutions in Vietnam and abroad, supporting the international visibility of Vietnamese art.
CHAU LE
Deputy Director
minhchau@boitran.com
Rooted in the cultural soul of Hue and now based in San Diego, Chau Le carries forward a legacy shaped by generations of artistic devotion. As founder of the Minh Chau Art Gallery in early 2000s Hanoi, she earned recognition for curating works of rare depth and distinction.
Today, with quiet reverence and visionary grace, Chau Le returns to her origins through Boi Tran Garden, an homage to tradition, memory, and beauty. Guided by a lifelong passion for Vietnamese art, she has cultivated a collection that reads like a love letter to its masters: Nguyen Gia Tri, Tran Van Can, Bui Xuan Phai, Nguyen Sang, and many more.
Her journey is not only one of curation, but of preservation, bridging time and place, form and feeling, in a space where art breathes and stories unfold.
