He is a qualified sculptor, having graduated from the Vietnam Fine Arts University in 1995. During his time as a student, he experienced a traumatic episode of unrequited love that led to a significant psychological disturbance, prompting the University to send him to a hospital for a period, as reported by his classmates. Following his graduation, he failed to integrate socially, returned to his hometown, and worked in solitude. For many years, he would occasionally visit the city and sit at the gates of his former art school to carve wooden sculptures. His conduct frequently does not align with societal expectations. Between the mid-1990s and the mid-2000s, Nguyen Nhu Y was married to a woman with mental disabilities, whose parents were affected by Agent Orange. She served as a muse for many of his artworks depicting women.
In addition to his frequent engagement with sculptures, Nguyen Nhu Y has created numerous paintings and drawings, typically organized into series such as portraits of girls, scenes from Hanoi, idyllic landscapes, surreal plant life, masks, devils, abstractions, and more. As a prolific artist, Y, in his independent creative process, disregards not only the conventions of academic art but also the expectations of the contemporary art scene.
Nguyen Nhu Y has showcased his sculptures and paintings at Salon Natasha since 1995, where he held his solo exhibition titled "Naïve of Hanoi" in 1998. Following 2010, his works were occasionally represented by various other galleries in Hanoi. The majority of his creations reveal a "savage" essence, a genuine naiveté, and a remarkable emotional intensity.
Despite being diligent and productive, Nguyen Nhu Y has remained impoverished throughout his life due to his inability and unwillingness to adapt to market demands. He typically requested minimal compensation for his work, yet he declined to accept money as a gift, insisting instead that individuals take his paintings in exchange (the only gifts he accepted were art supplies).
For decades, only a handful of individuals in Hanoi provided him with support. The extensive collection at Salon Natasha was partially established to assist the "crazy Y." Lacking sufficient space to accommodate the numerous sculptures they acquired, Vu Dan Tan and Natasha returned most of them to the artist, retaining only a few. Nevertheless, the collection of paintings and drawings exceeds 1200 pieces.