What tale of nationalhood could possibly be told in the length of a strip of thumb-sized stamps?
To commercial art director and illustrator Đức Lương (“Luongdoo”), founder of the Bưu Hoa virtual stamp archival project, it’s a scrupulous but enduring one.
Born in 2017 as a digital project to document Vietnam’s lost postage-stamp culture, a select set of nature-themed stamps from Luong’s Bưu Hoa archive are now available for in-person viewing at the Collection + exhibition currently on display at the Dogma Collection’s Thao Dien studio.
Luong’s journey of stamp collecting began as an unwitting inheritance of torn-cover stamp books from an uncle in Lăng Cô, Huế in 2015. Now, that little legacy has evolved into an online community who share in the many stories attached to each newly discovered stamp added to the collection.
“Look closer at these stamps, observe the way those artists portrayed their art, the palette, or their thoughts and concepts during their contemporaneous time,” Luong says – his wish for the collection.
The debut edition of Collection + is a 4-storey exhibition featuring 3 artists: Hanoi-based Thanh Uy Art Gallery, Ho Chi Minh City-based graphic design collective Lưu Chữ, and Bưu Hoa.
The new Collection + artist initiative invites members of Vietnam’s arts community to co-curate Dogma’s considerable archival collection of political and propaganda artworks dating back to the period immediately before and after Vietnam’s unification as a country in 1975.
It’s the art world’s equivalent of a wine pairing for viewers with a penchant for Vietnamese art and history – artists pair their own works with personal selections from the Dogma archive in a disciplined exercise inviting renewed curiosity with historical materials and their relevance in the picture of Vietnam today.
Bưu Hoa’s first in-person show is a two-part experience: laminated wall strips pressed with a small selection of nature and flora-themed stamps from the collection, which lead viewers towards the wall-sized prints housed in the back triangular passageway.
In the center of the room, protective white gloves accompany the red leather-bound collections of Dogma’s vintage stamps, which date to a period of production ranging from 1946 to 1976 – the “Democratic Republic of Vietnam” era of then northern Vietnam.
A casual observer might miss the pencil-sketched annotations accompanying the incomplete design proofs included in the stamp volumes.
But to Luong, those pencil markings present an insight into the formal qualities of Vietnam’s stamp making craft – intentional decisions on the use of graphics, color, and composition which elevate those stamps from mere forms of postal payment to miniature snapshots of a craft which was, against all odds, growing its own artistic temperament against the backdrop of historic country-building, war and poverty.
“I honestly admire how artists at the time created beauty through hardship,” shares the Bưu Hoa founder, reflecting on the artistic lineage of stamp-making and its endurance through a troubling context of production. “[That’s] incredibly touching to me as an illustrator.”
About the Collection and Exhibition-- Exhibition Dates: 15 Aug – 2 Nov 2025 -- Viewing Times: 11AM– 6PM Thu to Sun-- Location: 27A Nguyễn Cừ, Thảo Điền, An Khánh Ward, TP. Thủ Đức, TP. Hồ Chí Minh