Boi Tran Art Gallery is honoured to support the group exhibition “Chòn Chòn,” as part of its sustained engagement in nurturing younger generations of artists and contributing to a broader ecosystem in which contemporary Vietnamese art continues to evolve and expand.
Boi Tran is not only a distinguished Vietnamese artist and garden architect, but also a gifted cook. To be received by her in the former imperial city of Hue is both a pleasure and a discovery. Within a secluded garden of lotus ponds and wooden architecture, everything has been shaped by her own hand. Here, cooking becomes more than craft; it is an extension of life, rooted in the refined traditions of Hue and guided by balance, precision, and memory. What emerges is not simply a meal, but a quiet harmony, where art, space, and gesture come together as one.
Formally requested by Vietnam First Lady Mai Thi Hanh, Boi Tran Garden was privileged to host a cultural exchange meeting combined with Hue royal refined music and Hue fine dining on the official first foreign visit to Vietnam of Laos First Lady Naly Sisoulith.
The path of art is vast and endless. It always urges us to work and create without rest. For painter Boi Tran, when holding a brush, a palette knife, or a pen, all can become works of art. And this garden is also a work that she cherishes. It has no boundary between surrealism and realism. And that is exactly the artistic path that she has chosen.
On 14 November 2013 in Hue, a letter was left for Boi Tran, signed by Cao Trong Thiem. He did not come alone. Alongside him were Phan Van Tien, Vi Kien Thanh, and Le Van Suu; figures who, each in their own capacity, embody the institutional structure of Vietnamese art.
Yet what was left behind was not a statement of authority, but a gesture. Not institutional, but human.
Remembering an evening on Thien An Hill, Emeritus Professor Vinh Tuong writes of an encounter where hospitality and art became indistinguishable. In the quiet presence of Boi Tran’s paintings, meaning did not declare itself, but emerged slowly, through silence and attention. What remained was not simply admiration, but a memory shaped by feeling as much as by form.
When Anthony Bourdain came to film for his show Parts Unknown aired on CNN, what emerged was not a story of food, but of memory made tangible. At Boi Tran Garden, a meal unfolds alongside architecture, ritual and the residue of time. Flavours do not seek intensity, but balance; gestures do not display, but endure. In such a place, taste becomes a language through which the past continues to live.
Boi Tran is not described because she does not need to be. She remains, not as image, but as presence, not as subject, but as the place to which feeling returns.
Boi Tran Garden is proud to document a brief footage by ZDF German Television Broadcaster, featuring the gracefulness of Boi Tran's art, cuisine and architecture at Boi Tran Garden
Boi Tran Garden blooms with memory, devotion, and the gentle breath of art. Created by painter Boi Tran as a sanctuary for the soul, it is a place where silence speaks, and beauty lingers in every stone and shadow. In 2011, her heartfelt contributions were honoured with the Phan Kinh Honorary Prize, a tribute from her ancestral family, offered in deep gratitude.
More than a garden, it is a living poem. A return. A bloom that never fades.
