Trinh Quoc Chien graduated from the Hanoi Fine Art Institute in 1993 and has been working with lacquer ever since. His pieces, most often multi-dimensional with raised surfaces and inclusions are asymmetrical representations of complex Buddhist meditations. One first sees the composition as a balanced whole but quickly discovers that there are multiple panels, each presenting a unique perspective and a fragment of a decoded puzzle associated with the main theme of the work. Chiens works include silver powder and gold leaf, sea and egg shell, pebbles, mica, cloth and handmade bead underlay as well as hardened pigmented lacquer. The elements are fashioned into traditional Buddhist or cultural symbols and the final result is a structured representational image.