Phang Thu Trang graduated from Theatre and Cinema University and is currently a member of the Vietnam Young Painters’ Association. In 2005, she held a solo show as part of the International Art Fair in Singapore and recently held a successful solo show at the Hilton Hanoi.

Born in Hanoi, like many other artists, Trang’s mind has been engraved with images of the city and the Northern villages. She brings these vivid memories of the villagers and their life to her paintings. She likes to express these remembered emotions in her works; women going to the market at dawn, farmers hastening on a cycle on the village roads, peaceful afternoons or hot summer days.

Trang often uses wide sweeps of her palette knife to describe her feelings. There are more and more refined marks in her paintings as if they are telling never ending stories of people living in Vietnam. In these narratives they sky and water are depicted with broad , rough strokes. Looking at the big blocks of colour, the viewer has a feeling of peace and immensity.  The artist details the leaf canopy with small strokes and uses the tiniest ones for the figures.Trang’s strongest point is to capture light and bring it to her paintings. She always tries to use colour and light to create different sensations in each piece of her art.

Trang’s naive works are characteristically Vietnamese. She re-defines the notion of landscapes and stamps it with her trademarks – rounded tree canopies supported by thin trunks, leaves of graduating colours from dark to light as they greet the sun, subtle reflections, consistent strokes delivered by a palette knife and individual elements stripped to their bare essentials. The smooth areas of bright monotone contrast with the lush, painterly impasto used to define the tree and leaves painted in candy colours that are almost edible. Indeed, an international audience is increasingly drawn to her delectable artwork, with collectors in England, Australia, the Americas, Phillipines and Singapore.