Le Duc Hai and Le Ngoc Thanh are two young artists who are well known in Vietnam. They are twin brothers who work together merging their ideas in visual language, paintings and installations. They were born at the end of the long American war in Vietnam, into an era of difficult recovery. Through their youth they experienced both poverty on one hand and enormous technical progress on the other hand. Today their language is derived from: computers, Internet, and fashion - the same language of the young generation in the west. Our Vietnamese artists have a curious relationship with contemporary art in the west.

The young artists translate their own forms of art into modern idioms based on contemporary movements in art, for example conceptual-art. They are both performers and have interesting works of performance-Art and installations. Their paintings show not only an appreciation of Vietnamese art and of traditional technique, but also they have an essential ingredient - the feel of popular and common symbols. They use lacquer on wood to cover large panels in old Vietnamese tradition in order to produce contemporary forms. Their work is simple in form and powerful in its impact. Human figures and objects dissolve into geometric shapes, such as the triangular cone hat.

Simple forms and ordinary symbols (fish, head, bird, cloud, and lamps) were often used in the West, as elements of design. Here in the paintings they are used as symbols on a card game chart, or as a dictionary of a personal and secret language. Symbols of ordinary life are used as hidden dreams and emotions. Their symbols are driven out of popular folk art and are translated into an aesthetic of modern icons. Nevertheless, they stand visually as Christian Icons – the highest level of art. They are not really religious symbols, but they look like religious symbols. Their ordinary symbols are presented as jewelry in gold; each is presenting a prominent idea or a desirable dream in a precious frame. This is their manifestation. "We present our Vietnamese ordinary life and we are proud of it". Simple objects of ordinary life and of poverty are covering great pain of suffering during the war. Their objects represent dreams of better life in the future. A "lantern lamp" is the symbol for waiting. Women are waiting for their husbands and children for their fathers who went to fight. Symbols in Art-history were based on religion, Mythology or Nature.

Our artists, Thanh and Hai use in their art a personal language minimized to enigmas. A bicycle appears as prominent icon, but to some extent is a "ready-made".

I would say that their works of art refer to Magritte, the modern artist. They built a whole world of icons similar to the way that the great surrealist artist did. He built a private visual dictionary (a pipe, a chair, and a hat), enigmas and codes.

Through the centuries Vietnamese artists developed a visual language which has been severe and monochromatic. Lacquer on wood has been used in Vietnamese art for 2000 years. Today many of the Vietnamese artists work in the same old technique using very few colors, black, brown, yellow and white, painting the traditional subjects. In countries that have suffered economically, as a consequence of a long war, artists created forms of art which often depicted the somber surroundings.

Our artists express their art in a colorful, dramatic language; however, they still use the traditional lacquer technique. Their icons are painted in rich colors as red vermilion, gold and silver. Sometimes, they add special effects to the painting by using silver and gold leaves as a background. This will make the painting reflect more color, and the finished product would appear metallic. Another technique is to add crushed eggshells to the paint, so that broad areas of color take on a mottled effect. This technique can be seen in a many of their paintings.

"At home, I must paint every day. If I don't, I can't sleep at night." Thus both Le Ngoc Thanh and Le Duc Hai expressed their passion for their art.