Photos from a visit to artist Ngô Đình Bảo Châu’s studio in Saigon, a creative space where she both produces her own work and shares her passion through teaching.

On most days, the studio holds multiple rhythms at once. It is where Bảo Châu develops her painting and drawing practice, while also opening that process to others, guiding students in developing their own artistic skills. Practice and pedagogy coexist here, shaping a space that feels both deeply personal and quietly communal. It’s a place where her creative work and mentorship naturally come together.

For Kaarem, the visit unfolded through an ongoing conversation. Our creative director, Chương Phạm, has been studying figure drawing with Bảo Châu, returning each week to the discipline of observation, repetition, and patience. What began as a class became a dialogue: between teacher and student, artist and process, garment and gesture.

We photographed Bảo Châu in her studio, in between moments of instruction, where attention shifts fluidly between her own work and the work of those she teaches.

For me, it’s when people feel confident enough to share the ideas they want to try out. Everyone usually has different goals for what they want to get from learning to draw, so the path looks different for each person. I love it when someone says, “I want to try this or that,” because it shows they’re inspired and ready to create more.

Honestly, drawing is all about practice, practice, and more practice. Right now, each student only has one class a week, which isn’t a lot of time, so progress can feel slow. But some students practice on their own at home, then bring their drawings back to show me. That extra practice makes a huge difference—you can really see how much faster they improve.

First, I usually check my own teaching method—maybe I’ve been going too fast or setting the bar too high. After talking with the student, I’ll break things down into smaller steps. Sometimes I’ll switch up the exercise or try a different approach, just to keep learning fun.

And of course, feeling stuck or discouraged is totally normal—it’s part of the learning process. The important thing is to keep practicing, even if progress feels slow. Once you start noticing improvement, that’s super motivating.

Now, since Chương is both the interviewer and my student, let me say this: if you’re not the one feeling discouraged, then honestly, I am, haha. I’m still figuring out how to help you feel like you’re making progress. You draw really fast, but sometimes not very carefully.

I remember you did a watercolor still life of flowers and leaves that was beautiful. Your quick, loose style worked perfectly there. But when we switched to pencil studies of figures, that’s where you got stuck. You don’t quite have the patience to fully finish the details. And since your goal is to draw people, which is probably the hardest part of learning to draw, maybe the solution is that I need to be more disciplined with you, haha.

I don’t really get tired of painting or drawing that often. If I do feel a bit drained, I just recharge—maybe a glass of fresh juice, a sweet treat or taking a nap. Or I’ll go play some sports to get my energy back.

A really common mistake is being afraid of making mistakes or drawing something that looks bad. Nobody draws perfectly from the start, and that’s totally fine. You need the right knowledge and a good eye for observation, but that has to go hand in hand with practicing your drawing skills. And here I’m just talking about approaching art at the basic level, for beginners who are just starting out.

I think the biggest game-changer for me has been focus. The more you really concentrate on what you’re doing, the faster the progress comes. For me, staying fully present while you practice makes a huge difference.

Ngô Đình Bảo Châu’s practice challenges the dualisms and tensions that exist in contemporary society and the natural world. Incorporating a wide range of materials from sedge mats, steel, and concrete, to trúc chỉ—paper made from the purées of bamboo, corn and duckweed, the artist creates labour-intensive multimedia installations that require years of research and production. One of Bao Chau’s seminal projects included appropriated symbols belonging to a collective, cultural memory and placed in an imagined homespace, foregrounding the power of repetition and collapsing the distinction between public and private space. In her most recent work, Bao Chau reimagines the house as a pulsating, sensorial organism entangled in a complex ecology with our evolving world.

Born in 1986 in Dong Thap and educated at the Ho Chi Minh University of Fine Arts, Ngô Đình Bảo Châu has held numerous exhibitions within Asia and abroad, including Half a day continues | That day, I was preparing to go out then it rained, organized by Sao La, 1/2 Gallery, Dalat; Towards Realist Socialization, curated by Arlette Quynh-Anh Tran, Galerie Quynh, Ho Chi Minh City; Silk of light, Sàn Art Productions x Phuong My, Ho Chi Minh City; Nothing Special That Day–An Exit, University of the Arts Bremen, Bremen, Germany and Gia Lam Train Factory, Hanoi; Vietnam in Transition, 1976–Present, Wende Museum, Culver City, CA, USA; No Cai Bum: The Dreaming Dalat, Dalat; No Cai Bum, Hue; Am I Superwoman?, Sàn Art, Ho Chi Minh City; Block of Silence, SECC, Ho Chi Minh City; Where The Sea Remembers, The Mistake Room, Los Angeles, CA, USA; Bodies Survey(ed), Sàn Art, Ho Chi Minh City; She, organized by Sao La, Địa Projects, Ho Chi Minh City, travelled to Sweet ‘Art, London, UK and Little Pink Monster Gallery, TX, USA; Body Bouquet, Ernest G. Welch School of Art & Design Galleries, Atlanta, GA, USA; Out of Nowhere, Sao La, Ho Chi Minh City; and My eldest sister – Part 2: Eldest sister, Sàn Art, Ho Chi Minh City.

In 2025, Bao Chau was shortlisted for the Sovereign Asian Art Prize, Sovereign Art Foundation, Hong Kong. In 2018, she was selected for the apexart Fellowship in New York, USA, and in 2010 undertook the 943 Studio arts residency in Kunming, China. In 2016, she received a grant from the Denmark-Vietnam Cultural Development and Exchange Fund for Open Room—an open studio event with artists Cam Xanh, Lap-Xuan N. Do, Kim Duy, and Dao Tung.

Ngô Đình Bảo Châu lives and works between Hue and Ho Chi Minh City.
(via Galerie Quynh Gallery)