Nguyen Minh Thanh was born in 1971 in Hanoi and in 1996 graduated from Vietnam University of Fine Arts. Now he is living and working in Dalat. Nguyen Minh Thanh is considered as one of a small group of “pioneers” of Vietnamese contemporary art: Hanoi artists who were among the first to display their work internationally, and who significantly influenced the subsequent development of contemporary art in Hanoi.  The work of Nguyen Minh Thanh, mainly in Chinese ink and watercolor on handmade Vietnamese dó paper, is marked by his use of what appears to be his own portrait in his meditative and spiritual explorations. He stated: ‘I believe that inside of each person there is real and perfect beauty – we cannot see it but we feel it. I would like to remind people that beneath our mind there is peace and from there, everything will begin.’ (Friederike Krentz and Brian Ring)