Painting portraying migrant workers win international art competition
The UOB Painting of the Year 2025’s award-winning artworks affirm the innovation of Vietnamese contemporary art, where tradition meets modern expression to reflect social realities.
THE HANOI TIMES — A powerful lacquer painting depicting the fleeting connections and quiet strength of migrant workers has won the 2025 UOB Painting of the Year (Vietnam).
"Temporary Connection" by Cao Van Thuc portrays the harsh faced by migrant workers in Vietnam’s major cities.
The top prize was awarded to 30-year-old artist Cao Van Thuc for “Temporary Connection” that uses acid and lacquer on aluminum alloy, conveying a poignant narrative of displacement, solidarity and urban transformation, an empathetic tribute to the resilience of Vietnam’s working class.
As the national winner, Thuc receives VND500 million (US$20,400) and will represent Vietnam in the regional finals for the 2025 UOB Southeast Asian Painting of the Year award.
]The regional winner will be announced this November in Singapore, alongside top entries from Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand.
A graduate of the Vietnam University of Fine Arts (2020), Thuc is recognized for works rich in emotional depth and social commentary. In the Temporary Connection painting, laborers huddle in a truck, their square formation missing one corner, symbolizing fragile survival and the incomplete belonging of urban migration.
Artist Cao Van Thuc and his award-winning painting. Photo: UOB
“I wanted to honor the quiet dignity of migrant workers. The painting reflects the emotional isolation of those who leave their home to make a living. I hope it inspires empathy and bridges invisible divides of our cities.”
Chief Judge Dang Xuan Hoa, one of Vietnam’s leading contemporary artists, praised Thuc’s artwork for its thematic depth and technical mastery.
“The combination of lacquer on metal, with influences from graphic art, creates sharp contrasts in form and tone. It mirrors the complexity of the lives it portrays. The artist represents a new generation - bold, honest and socially engaged,” he commented.
A painting inspired by a chest X-ray and an implantable cardioverter-defibrillator (ICD) wins this year’s UOB Painting of the Year competition (Vietnam)
In the Emerging Artist category, Nguyen Ngoc Thuan, 53 and the first-time painter, won the Most Promising Artist of the Year (Vietnam) for his debut painting called “Self-Portrait, 2025” (A Life Rooted in My Form as a Tree).
The painting was inspired by his decade living with an implantable cardioverter-defibrillator (ICD), reimagined as a “mother tree” symbolizing survival and transformation.
“This work is a meditation on resilience. It reminds me that it’s never too late to begin again,” he stated.
Now in its third year in Vietnam, the UOB Painting of the Year competition, part of the regional art initiative launched in Singapore in 1982. It is the longest-running annual art award in Southeast Asia, dedicated to discovering and supporting emerging talent across the region.
