How Vietnamese artists and culture deepen Mathilde Granveau’s sense of belonging
1. About Mathilde Granveau
Mathilde Granveau is a French contemporary artist whose creative journey has carried her across borders and cultures. Now based in Da Nang, she continues to explore how abstract art can connect people through emotion and form. One of the most meaningful parts of her time in Vietnam has been the relationships she has built with local artists. Through these friendships, she has discovered new perspectives on the intimate bond between fine art and community.
Mathilde with her paintings
2. Artist Nguyễn Quốc Dân - Giving Materials a Second Life
Among the artists Mathilde has met is Nguyễn Quốc Dân, an artist known for his commitment to sustainability and creative reuse. His work proves that beauty can be reborn from what already exists. By transforming recycled materials into art, Quốc Dân is changing the way we perceive value and permanence.
Mathilde and Artist Quoc Dan
When Mathilde visited his studio, named Xưởng Tái Sinh in Hội An, she was immediately drawn to his philosophy.
“Through his philosophy of Tasinism, he reminds us that creativity doesn’t come from endless consumption, but from what already surrounds us. His belief is simple yet profound: everything can become a new creation,” she shared.
Their meeting unfolded like an artistic dialogue between form and substance. While Mathilde builds her compositions through geometry and layering, Quốc Dân deconstructs materials to reveal their hidden stories. Both approaches meet in a shared vision: art is a bridge between past and present, nature and humanity.
For Mathilde, this encounter deepened her understanding that Vietnamese contemporary art thrives on balance: between preservation and renewal, between stillness and reinvention. Quốc Dân’s artwork reminds her that an artist’s role is not only to create, but also to listen to materials, to places, and to the histories that wish to be told again.
3. Artist Đức Bẹt – Art as a Blend of Reality and Imagination
Mathilde also met Đức Bẹt, a distinctive voice in Vietnam’s creative landscape. His expressive, surrealist paintings blur the line between what is real and what is imagined.
Mathilde and Artist Duc Bet
When Mathilde encountered his work, she recognised in it a quiet discipline and devotion that echoed her own process. His serene approach to surrealism mirrors her belief that abstract art is a living dialogue between feeling and form. Their exchange was not only about art technique, but about how art can hold stillness and movement within the same breath.
These moments of connection have influenced Mathilde’s own creations. Though guided by geometry, her paintings now carry the rhythm and breath of Vietnam as a natural harmony that lives in the balance of colour, light, and silence.
4. Artist Du Du – A Friendship Beyond Borders
Among the artists Mathilde holds closest is Dư Dư, an established painter from Huế. With her refined aesthetic and philosophical depth, Dư Dư is known for bringing traditional Vietnamese motifs into the realm of art.
Mathilde and Artist Du Du
Their conversations deepened Mathilde’s understanding of Vietnamese creativity as a fusion of heritage and modernity. Vietnam has added warmth and emotion to Mathilde’s abstraction. The earthy tones, rhythmic lines, and quiet interplay of stillness and motion in her paintings all carry traces of this influence.
“Mathilde’s work is spiritual, philosophical, and traditional,” Dư Dư shared, adding many more positive words about Mathilde’s art in the interview with DNRT.
5. A Meeting of Cultures
For Mathilde Granveau, these encounters with Vietnamese artists, Quốc Dân, Đức Bệt, and Dư Dư, have been more than artistic exchanges. They are moments of recognition, reminders that creativity is universal and that art is most powerful when it listens, adapts, and connects.
Through Vietnam, Mathilde has discovered that the essence of art also lies in the relationship with people, with places, and with culture. Her fine art now reflects both the symmetry of her French roots and the organic rhythm of Vietnamese life.
As she continues to live and create in Da Nang, Mathilde remains inspired by the harmony she finds between East and West art. Her paintings are no longer compositions of colour and form. They are now stories of connection, transformation, and belonging, told through the universal language of creativity.
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