About

Mai Văn Nhơn (b. 1960) lives and works in Biên Hòa, in the southern Vietnamese province of Đồng Nai, a centre of ceramic production for more than a century.

He learned to paint from his father, an independent painter working in ink wash, calligraphy and oil. At thirteen he was the principal poster painter for a local cinema. He went on to work as a magazine illustrator and industrial designer while continuing to paint in oil, and has worked independently throughout.

In 2006 he began researching glaze chemistry and ceramic production, developing a method of building portraits from coloured ceramic made with local materials. In 2010 he produced a fifty-metre section of the Hà Nội Ceramic Mosaic Mural. In 2017 he was commissioned by the Government of Viet Nam to make twenty-one ceramic portraits of the leaders of the APEC economies, presented as state gifts at the APEC Summit in Đà Nẵng, and held a solo exhibition at the Vietnam National Museum of Fine Arts, Hà Nội.

Since 2023 he has worked on a group of large-scale ceramic portraits of Vietnamese cultural figures and of children from Đồng Nai.

Training

Trained in painting by his father, Đồng Nai.
From 2006 — independent research in glaze chemistry and ceramic production, Biên Hòa.

Exhibitions

2026 — Southeast Region Fine Arts Exhibition, Vietnam (group show)
2025 — 80 Years of Vietnamese Fine Arts and Photography, Hà Nội (group show)
2025 — Đồng Nai Province Museum, Biên Hòa (group show)
2024 — Southeast Region Fine Arts Exhibition, Vietnam (group show)
2023 — Southeast Region Fine Arts Exhibition, Vietnam (group show)
2021 — Stories from the Heart, Đồng Nai (group show)
2021 — Southeast Region Fine Arts Exhibition, Bà Rịa–Vũng Tàu (group show)
2020 — Southeast Region Fine Arts Exhibition, Bình Phước (group show)
2019 — Southeast Region Fine Arts Exhibition, Tây Ninh (group show)
2018 — Mother and Sea, Vietnamese–French artists, Ho Chi Minh City Museum of Fine Arts (group show)
2018 — Spring Exhibition, Văn Miếu Trấn Biên, Đồng Nai (group show)
2018 — Southeast Region Fine Arts Exhibition, Bình Thuận (group show)
2017 — Portraits of the Leaders of the APEC Economies in Đồng Nai Ceramic, Vietnam National Museum of Fine Arts, Hà Nội (solo show)
2017 — Đồng Nai: Thirty Years of Industrialisation, Đồng Nai (group show)
2017 — Southeast Region Fine Arts Exhibition, Đồng Nai (group show)
1998 — Southeast Region Fine Arts Exhibition, Đồng Nai (group show)

Works in the Southeast Region Fine Arts Exhibition are selected by the Vietnam Fine Arts Association, which organises the exhibition.

Awards

2011 — First Prize, Đồng Nai Spirit – One Thousand Years of Thăng Long Hà Nội, Đồng Nai
1998 — Encouragement Prize, Southeast Region Fine Arts Exhibition, Đồng Nai

Public Commissions

2017 — Commissioned by the Government of Viet Nam: twenty-one ceramic portraits of the leaders of the APEC economies, presented as state gifts, APEC Summit, Đà Nẵng
2010 — Ceramic mural section, approx. 50 m, Hà Nội Ceramic Mosaic Mural, Hà Nội

Collections

Private collections, national and international

Memberships

Vietnam Fine Arts Association
Đồng Nai Province Literature and Arts Association