Nguyễn Văn Cường was born on 2 February 1972 in the north eastern coastal province of Thái Bình, 110 km southeast of Hanoi, in the heart of the Red River Delta. He graduated from Hanoi Fine Art University in 1996 after five years of study, adept at working with the full range of Vietnamese art materials, including lacquer, silk and local hand-made giấy dó paper. Cường has also experimented with performance and installation art and is an occasional collaborator with well-known Hanoi performance artist Đào Anh Khánh.

As an artist who has grown up during the period of rapid transformation that has followed đổi mới (political and economic reforms that started in 1986), Cường has developed a keen eye for social change and these observations have long been reflected in his work, especially his commentary on human behaviour. He has also been a significant beneficiary of international interest in emerging artists from Vietnam and has held numerous group and solo exhibitions in the USA, Canada, Germany, France, Finland, Japan, Singapore, Hong Kong and Australia.

As well as being at the forefront of visual arts, Cường’s improvisational music skills have taken him around the world as a performer with a mute theatre group.

Witness Collection sponsored Cường from 2006-09 to explore new directions in his art, free of commercial or social constraints.