Art prodigy auctions paintings to raise funds for Covid workers

'Pandemic Paintings,' to be held online from July 16 to 22, will feature 20 works depicting flowers, paddy fields and the ocean. The 3D exhibition will be remarkably similar to a physical exhibition, with viewers able to see paintings hung on virtual walls and get more details with the click of a mouse.

According to the painter, paintings of the ocean were done during the fourth Covid outbreak in Vietnam, when he was staying in southern Ba Ria - Vung Tau Province.

Xeo Chu paints at his home in Saigon. Photo courtesy of Xeo Chu.

Through these artworks, Chu wants to convey his love for nature, encouraging people to find peace of mind and happiness from simple things in life.

In the six-day exhibition, two online auction sessions will be held, on July 18 and 20. The money from these paintings will be used to support doctors and nurses at the Medicine University Hospital in Saigon's District 5.

Chu (birth name: Pho Van An), 14, had a solo exhibition at Georges Berges Gallery in New York City in 2018. Georges Berges, owner of the gallery, is convinced that Chu is a young version of Jackson Pollock, American painter and a major figure in the abstract expressionist movement in the 1940s and 1950s.

He has sold a painting for over $150,000.