“Sơn mài” (Vietnamese lacquer)  is a mixed-media art form, one in which a successful work must hold its ground across multiple viewpoints. As the light shifts, form, depth, and surface must continue to sustain a stable allure, remaining faithful to the artist’s original conception.

Lacquer does not belong solely to the past. It is an art of the future. For Bùi Hữu Hùng, who has devoted almost his entire life to lacquer workshops, this is precisely the strength and exceptional spirit of lacquer art.

But lacquer is more than that, it is ever enchanting, ever compelling to artists and collectors across East and West. Yet even in Vietnam itself, the lacquer craft still holds many hidden dimensions, not yet fully named or decoded.

Having traveled a long journey layered with sedimented histories and secrets, sơn mài is gradually “unlocked” through the lived experience of those who practice it. In The Sơn Mài Code, this journey begins in Bùi Hữu Hùng’s studio. He has passed through the workshops of earlier masters, witnessed profound transformations in the craft, and recorded its history through practice in his lacquer studio in Quảng An, Hanoi.

In a Vietnam undergoing rapid transformation, does lacquer choose a slower path, one of endurance, patience, and quiet contemplation? And if so, is it at risk of being left behind? The dialogues with Bùi Hữu Hùng gathered in The Sơn Mài Code offer a thoughtful response to these questions.

Amid a rapidly transforming Vietnam, lacquer does not choose a path of slowness, endurance, or retreat. We invite you to enter into a dialogue, to decode the mysteries that give rise to the pride embodied in works made from the lacquer resin of Phú Thọ, Vietnam.