Sea Of Love – A Story That Remains
Pham Luc’s Art Adrift in Vietnam’s Most Stunning Bays
From Ha Long and Lan Ha to the sunlit coast of Nha Trang—three UNESCO-recognized natural wonders—Pham Luc’s paintings are not merely exhibited; they sail with the wind, embodying memory, spirit, and the cultural soul of Vietnam.
Aboard the royal-style yachts of Emperor Cruises®, operated by Lux Cruises Group®—Vietnam’s first boutique cruise line—art is no longer confined to static galleries. Here, amidst sea and sky, heritage, fine art, and refined lifestyle converge. “Sea of Love” becomes not only a floating gallery, but a visual voyage, an emotional journey told in color and line.
This exhibition presents 25 plein air works selected from the LuxArts Collection®, which houses over 500 original pieces by Pham Luc. Though representing less than 10% of his body of work—spanning over 6,000 pieces—each painting is a portal to the past: from war to peace, from sorrow to resilience, from rustic village scenes to modern urban rhythms. Every canvas bears the mark of an artist whose brush tells stories only he can.
Pham Luc, born in 1943 in Hue and a descendant of the literary legend Nguyen Du, graduated from the Hanoi University of Fine Arts in 1977. A senior member of the Vietnam Fine Arts Association, he is among the few Vietnamese painters whose works are exhibited and collected globally—in the U.S., France, Germany, Japan, Russia, and Australia. International scholars often refer to him as a “historian with a brush”, someone who paints the soul of a nation through memory, emotion, and cultural depth.
His paintings—The Flame from the Heart, Dream, Where I Was Born—are not illustrations but emotional compositions. Whether working with oil, watercolor, pastel, or Chinese ink, on canvas, dó paper, or repurposed burlap, Pham Luc’s art always carries a musical visuality and an unmistakably Vietnamese character.
Onboard Emperor Cruises Origin and Emperor Cruises Legend, art is not static—it drifts with salt air, light, and sea breeze. These luxury vessels are more than yachts; they are floating palaces on the East Sea. And it is Pham Luc’s paintings that crown their interiors, elevating these maritime sanctuaries into spaces where architecture, craftsmanship, and culture meet. His artwork breathes life into these palaces, offering guests not just a journey across the waves, but a voyage through Vietnam’s soul.
Pham Luc shared:
I love the bold idea of bringing my art aboard—a place of wind, salt, sun, and humidity. My paintings, like the ship itself, drift through memory, tracing a Vietnam that once was and continues becoming. I paint women, family, and home. Bright colors are the light of life. I don’t paint sadness—I paint hope.
Professor Thomas J. Vallely (Harvard University), a leading Vietnam scholar, remarked:
Pham Luc’s emotional language is Vietnam itself. His paintings are open doors to the soul of the nation. Every time I’m in Hanoi, I visit his modest home—where his works quietly tell stories of history. I feel honored to have brought a piece of Vietnam into my own.
Behind this vision stands Dr. Pham Ha, Chairman of LuxGroup and a devoted collector who owns over 500 original works by Pham Luc. He first organized the “Sea of Love” exhibition in 2016 and has since transformed it into a signature art-at-sea experience.
Dr. Pham Ha shared:
Every collector is like a private museum. I don’t collect for pride—I collect to preserve the past, honor the present, and inspire the future. I kept the name “Sea of Love” because it celebrates the harmony between humanity and the sea—between art, nature, and Vietnamese culture. These plein air works, painted in Nha Trang, reflect the beauty of the coast, the generosity of its people, the richness of island heritage, and a philosophy of sustainable living. Deeply local, deeply Vietnamese.
For him, this exhibition is not merely an art showcase—it is a form of cultural storytelling. Through paintings, memory, and identity, Vietnam’s narrative floats freely across the sea. These floating palaces become not only vessels of luxury, but living museums, where art breathes and echoes in rhythm with the waves.
Sea of Love – A Story That Remains.
Because a fine meal may be forgotten, a beautiful painting may fade,
But memories—and the stories they carry—can last forever.
Nguyễn Thị Ngọc Tuyết
