Art that softens the world
At Anima Saigon Hotel – an art hotel in Ho Chi Minh City’s District 1, every floor holds a story told through contemporary Vietnamese art. Among the artists who shape this atmosphere, one stands out for his gentle worlds of blurred light, softened figures, and emotionally charged abstraction: Pham Xeen. His works invite you to move closer, let the edges dissolve, and perhaps, sense something within yourself shift in the quiet between colors.
From clarity to blur – a new way of seeing
Born in 1994, Xeen’s artistic path changed irrevocably after a painful moment in his family’s life. When his father suffered a severe stroke that left him paralyzed and mentally disoriented, asking the same “who, what, where, when?” on repeat – Xeen found himself rethinking everything, including how he painted.
Seeking to understand his father’s fragmented perception, he made a bold decision: he took off his glasses and allowed the world to blur. Clear outlines vanished; colors seeped into one another; shapes softened into suggestion rather than certainty. What could have been disorientation instead became revelation. A new artistic vocabulary emerged, one grounded in empathy, emotional truth, and the quiet courage of looking differently.
“Ours”– light breaking through
One of the key works from this period is Chúng Ta (2023), translated as Ours. A soft beam of light opens at the center of an enveloping darkness, with flickers of orange punctuating the surface like distant sparks. When viewed within the context of his father’s illness and his own leap from corporate work to full-time painting, the piece feels like a meditation on grief and resilience, pain, confusion, and hope suspended together in a single breath.
During this transition, painting became therapeutic for him. As he recalls, “Painting then felt like a meditation, a test of the mind. Unplanned, it revealed a path where art fulfilled my inner self.”
That sentiment echoes throughout the series: vulnerability turning into clarity, darkness allowing light to emerge.
Dawn, dusk, and the language of time
With his newfound creative freedom, Xeen began painting from dawn until nightfall, and his canvases quietly reflect the shifting qualities of light throughout the day.
In Tịnh (2023) (Stillness), the blues and soft whites suggest a calm daytime sky, airy, open, almost cleansing.
In Trên cao (2023) (Up high), outlines of urban high-rise structures glow against the night, evoking a city that never truly sleeps.
Other works, like Nhóm người trước và sau (2023) (The people in front and behind), hint at the dense, kinetic energy of Ho Chi Minh City. Crowds, traffic, movement, yet rendered through Xeen’s softened lens, the chaos becomes gentler, quieter, bathed in empathy rather than overwhelm.
These paintings remind us that even in difficult moments, there is space for renewal for finding beauty in what once felt heavy.
Art as part of the Anima journey
Pham Xeen’s works are displayed throughout the hotel, part of a collection that also features Bach Vu, Tuyp Tran, Quoc Anh Le, Mzung Nguyen, Dang Quang Tien, and Le Phi Long. Together, they define the spirit of Anima: a boutique hotel in Saigon’s creative district where contemporary Vietnamese art is not decoration, but dialogue.
To walk the corridors of Anima is to step into these artists’ worlds—softened skylines, blurred memories, shifting lights and to let your own emotions surface in response. Xeen’s art doesn’t simply hang on the wall; it breathes, it hums with quiet introspection, it draws you inward.
At Anima, Pham Cong Xeen’s works are more than paintings; they are quiet emotional anchors within the hotel’s atmosphere. His softened skylines, blurred memories, and gentle shifts of light interact with the space, creating a sense of calm reflection that stays with each guest long after they’ve seen the works. Staying at Anima Saigon Hotel – a boutique art hotel in Saigon Ward, Ho Chi Minh City – means living among these stories every day. Each floor reveals new layers of Vietnam’s contemporary art scene, from Xeen’s blurred emotional landscapes to works by Bach Vu, Quoc Anh Le, and more.
📍 Anima Saigon Hotel
Discover Vietnamese contemporary art and let your Anima guide you.
