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| Le Trung Kien introduces his work at the Contemporary Art Ceramics Exhibition |
Born into a family with no artistic background, after finishing high school, Trung Kien chose to become a chef. With his inherent artistic flair, he learned to cut and carve vegetables, leaving his mark at many carving competitions in Ho Chi Minh City.
After working as a chef for a while, Kien decided to change direction and study philosophy in Thailand. He spent more than two years “wandering” in Thailand, learning about religions such as Buddhism, Hinduism, Taoism...
In 2015, Trung Kien returned to Hue with the mindset of focusing on business and achieved quite a lot of success. Sharing about that period, he admits he was “lucky” rather than “talented”. Then, the pursuit of money gradually changed him, making him irritable and hot-tempered...
Realizing that he was heading toward a negative direction, in 2020, Kien decided to quit his job to “turn” to a new direction in art. Skilled and hardworking, not stopping at his “cutting and carving” talent, he studied sculpture at the University of Arts, Hue University.
Being a first-year student at the age of 27 was a new experience for Trung Kien. Yet, artists don’t discriminate by age, and with the same passion, it was effortless to get along as loving art makes everyone brothers and friends. When he goes to school, his classmates provide updated trends and artistic “tastes” of young people. After school, as a collaborator of the Thua Thien Hue Fine Arts Association, he gets to chat with veteran artists of the ancient capital. Kien then understands more about the artistic perspective of... the elderly.
In addition, he has a “mentor” in the United States who has taught him a lot about art and introduced him to outstanding art and cultural sites in various countries for him to visit and learn from. Combining his experience during two years of “backpacking” in Thailand, artist Le Trung Kien created his own style, mixing characteristic features from both inside and outside the country. His “spiritual children” contain both “young” and “old” art styles, as well as religious and philosophical implications that are deeply ingrained in him.
With his forte in metal sculpture, Kien’s works are currently highly appreciated by professionals. The name Le Trung Kien has become familiar to art lovers at exhibitions in Hue such as the Huong Sen Fine Arts Exhibition, the Art Ceramics Exhibition, and regional exhibitions, and has even appeared at the Young Sculpture Award in the distant United States.
At the Region IV Fine Arts Exhibition (North Central) in 2022, 2024 and the 7th Young Fine Arts Exhibition - Hue 2024, Kien was honorably recognized and became a promising face for young artists in the ancient capital in general and the Hue Fine Arts sector in particular.
Participating for the first time, Le Trung Kien’s work of “Di” won the C prize at the 7th Ancient Capital Literature and Art Awards in the Fine Arts category. “Initially, I had no intention of participating because I felt I wasn’t good enough. It was only when friends encouraged me to try that I decided to submit ‘Di’ to the competition. Winning the award was very surprising and I feel very honored and grateful to the seniors in the profession who have always supported me,” shared him.
“Di” bears the image of 4 feet in different positions, each position expressing a separate emotion. Trung Kien combined four relief panels to create a chain of thoughts and actions, expressing hesitation, anxiety, and decision. Carrying the meaning of reflecting life with important turning points, Kien named the work “Di” (which means peace or movement in Chinese) to express the wish that “every step we take, we are moving with peace in our hearts.” The work “Di” left an impression on the Jury of the 7th Ancient Capital Literature and Art Awards, and the author is considered “a young factor in its ripening stage, a sweet fruit season for the future.”