Jack Clayton Art Gallery

Good morning 💥💥💥😎

Just a reminder that from today until 1st of July we are not open for walk in visits✌️

We ARE AVAILABLE by appointment ✍️📒

The reason is we are welcoming family visits from the UK 🇬🇧 and will be out of town some dates so please get in touch to book your viewing 👍

Today, we are excited to welcome a workshop for 2 this bright Wednesday morning 🔥🔥🔥

Have a great day ahead! 😎

A quick note for anyone planning to visit the gallery this month...
✍️📕👍

We'll be open by appointment only from Thursday 18th June through to Wednesday 1st July while we take a little time for family visiting from the UK 🇬🇧

If you'd like to come and view the collection during this period, please reach out in advance so we can make sure we're here to welcome you properly 📣

You can message us on Facebook, send an email, or find all our contact details on our website at jackclaytonart.com 👌

Regular walk-in hours (Thursday–Sunday, 12–6pm) resume from Thursday 2nd July.

Thank you for your understanding, and we look forward to seeing you soon! 🥳

Thank you for your visit 🙏🙏🙏

We had a great time sharing the inspirations behind our art and helping you choose a great set of limited edition prints to take back to Australia 🇻🇳✈️🇦🇺

We are looking forward to hosting you for a workshop project when you come back to Vietnam later this year 💥💥💥

We are open today 12-6pm for walk in customers with no need for appointment 🔥

Have a great Friday 😎✌️

Excited to see our prints find a new home at Waa Cà Phê on Trần Não Street, District 2. 🎨☕🤩

This is a new branch of the already existing Waa venue on Tran Hung Dao Street as they venture over to D2! 🥳

On the walls you'll find the Hoi An Map illustration alongside all three D**g Son Drum prints — North, Central and South Vietnam — each one a visual journey through the history, landmarks and culture of its respective region. Drawn entirely by hand in pen and pencil and coloured through a combination of watercolour and digital techniques, these pieces have been part our collection since 2021 💥💥💥

The D**g Son Drum series was inspired by the ancient bronze drums of the D**g Son civilisation — one of Southeast Asia's most significant prehistoric cultures. Each circular illustration reimagines the drum face as a window into Vietnamese life, past and present 🇻🇳

Thank you to Waa Cà Phê for supporting independent, original art and giving these pieces such a beautiful home 🙌

If you're in District 2 go and visit — and enjoy a coffee while you're there. ☕🌿

📍 Waa Cà Phê — Trần Não Street, District 2, Ho Chi Minh City
🎨 Prints available at Jack Clayton Art Gallery, Khánh Hội, District 4

Chợ Xóm Chiếu — The Market That Named a Neighbourhood 💥

The next addition to our D4 discovery project! 🔥

This time we ventured into a local market with a deep history and bags full of local charm! Just over the bridge from D1 and the likes of Ben Thanh Market this offers a true taste of classic HCMC lifestyle 👌

The name Xóm Chiếu translates as "Mat Weaving Village" — a reference to the traditional craft of woven chiếu sleeping mats that this community was built around long before the French arrived. It is one of the oldest place names in Saigon, still in daily use, still attached to a market that has been feeding this neighbourhood for generations.

Chợ Xóm Chiếu has been operating since before 1975 and runs close to 1,200 stalls across a sprawling network of covered and open-air sections. On a Saturday morning at 9am (when we visited) it is past the early chaos but still very much alive — produce, seafood, dry goods, clothing, street food and household supplies all running on the compressed, efficient logic of a market that exists entirely for the people who use it every day.

The name just got a second life too. In June 2025, as part of a major city-wide administrative reform, District 4 was officially dissolved and reorganised into three new wards — one of which was formally named Xóm Chiếu. A 400-year-old neighbourhood nickname has just been written back onto the official city map. The mat weavers are long gone. The name and the market endure.

10 minutes' walk from our gallery 👍

📍 Chợ Xóm Chiếu — Xóm Chiếu Ward, Ho Chi Minh City

https://epicurevietnam.com/events-1/vietnam/jack-clayton-br-the-printmaker-of-hidden-narratives

Wow 😀 what a great write-up! 💥💥💥

Thank you for the feature 🙏🙏🙏

Things are shaping up at our gallery with more projects being chipped away and we will share as we go! 😎

Jack Clayton The Printmaker of Hidden Narratives - Epicure Vietnam Through hand-carved woodcuts and intricate illustrations, Jack Clayton turns Vietnam’s histories, streets and symbols into richly layered visual...

Turtle Temple Proof Prints — Jade Emperor Pagoda, Saigon 🐢

Two unique proof prints from the studio — one in black, one in rubine red 🖤❤️
Hand carved and printed from a 60x80cm, locally sourced rough plywood block onto thin proofing paper 💥

The subject is the Jade Emperor Pagoda (Chùa Ngọc Hoàng) in District 3 — one of Saigon's most beautiful and spiritually significant temples, built in 1909 and dedicated to the supreme Taoist deity. It remains one of the most actively worshipped temples in the city ✨

These are single layer woodcut prints made before the final limited edition is produced. The block will be recarved before editioning begins, making these two prints genuinely unique originals that will differ from the finished edition. The thin proofing paper picks up every tool mark, wood grain and splinter in a way that thicker edition paper cannot — rawer and more immediate than the final prints will be 🔥

One black print and one red print are available to purchase directly from the gallery by request.

📍 Jack Clayton Art Gallery — 10 Đường Số 7, Phường Khánh Hội, Quận 4, Ho Chi Minh City
🕐 Open Thursday to Sunday, 12pm–6pm
📩 DM or email [email protected] to enquire

Cho Hai Trăm — The Night Street Nobody Told You About

A night street that sits a short 5 minute walk from our gallery. Almost unmentioned online, a mixture of misleading titles + addresses, read on for the full story!

At number 234 Tôn Đản Street there is an unmarked, typical alley entrance.
As the sun drops, gas burners ignite, plastic stools scrape onto the alley floor and the smell of sizzling bánh xèo drifts out onto the main road.
This is the beginning of 'Hẻm Hai Trăm / Alley 200' (as it is known amongst locals) and it has been feeding this neighbourhood for decades!

Getting here is part of the experience. Hẻm 243 of Tôn Đản Street, tight winding passageways thread through a dense residential neighbourhood — laundry overhead, motorbikes pressed to the walls, home altars glowing through open doorways.
The route is lined with pha lau stalls — the classic Southern Vietnamese street food of slow-braised offal in five-spice broth served in small bowls on low tables. Follow the turns and the alley eventually opens onto the food street itself.

My wife Xiu walked these alleys as a girl with her mother, drawn by the same smells and the same stalls that still exist here today.
The street runs until it meets Xóm Chiếu Street — another well-known local food corridor — and the two overlap briefly before arriving at Giáo Xứ Xóm Chiếu.
Founded as a parish in 1856 and built in its current French-Japanese architectural form in 1925 under Bishop Quinton. It is one of the oldest Catholic communities in Saigon, still preserving its original 14 Stations of the Cross and inauguration-era statues. At night, with food stalls glowing in the alleys at its feet, it feels like the quiet anchor of everything happening around it.

📍 Enter at 234 Tôn Đản Street — 5 minutes walk from The Jack Clayton Art Gallery

'Where generations meet, cultures connect'