LE Trieu Dien was born in 1943 in the Ben Tre Province of Vietnam, he later studied at the Phu Tho Polytechnic College in Ho Chi Minh City. He still works in the city and has featured in exhibitions across Vietnam as well as internationally, he has exhibited in China, France, Malaysia, Singapore, Japan, Australia and USA.
Like artists who express stories about love, hardship and past glories, LE Trieu Dien, with over four decades of experience as an artist, recalls the ups and downs of his life through paintings depicting life in the Mekong Delta. His narrative is characterised by simplistic shapes and forms, utilising arrows, triangles, circles and squares in many of his works. Some of these shapes are direct representations of real objects; triangles, for example, represent the roofs of traditional Vietnamese houses. Nevertheless, the true intention of LE Trieu Dien, who searches for his own honest expression, is to surpass mere representation in realism and strive for an abstraction of direct emotions.
As LE Trieu Dien once said, ”People say memories will limit my creativity, but to me, memories inspire my creativity and nourish my emotions day by day.” Le Trieu Dien’s canvas is characterised by strokes of different colours, which in effect produces puzzling forms and even unrecognisable imagery; but as the colours vibrate, the rhythms they produce unfold in front of the viewer, creating a unique sense of vibrancy.
The imageries not only appear as Le’s personal narrative of the past, but also serves as a strand of emotions, a force of energy enabling people to achieve direct and intuitive spirituality. The paintings of LE Trieu Dien are enchanting stories, passed from one generation to the next, that inspire universal spiritual experiences within us. Through his paintings, we perceive the flowing of time; we see the past, present and future.
