Nguyen Van Cuong was born in 1976 in Bac Giang Province, Vietnam. He graduated from the Fine Art Teachers College in 1995 and at the top of his class from the Hanoi Fine Art University in 1999,. He is currently a lecturer at the National College of Music and Painting. Cuong has had over 15 solo and group exhibitions since 1997 and has won numerous honors and awards including first prize in 1996 (Propaganda Paintings) and in 2011 (Self Portraiture). Nguyen Van Cuong primary medium is Oil on Canvas and he paints in a number of styles. "My paintings are an attempt to show the contradiction between who women are and who they make themselves up to be. They address contradictions: femininity versus frivolity, truth versus fallacy, purity versus vulgarity, and true beauty versus a sheath of deception".