Art in Bangkok: Shadow puppets and fallen idols

As social mayhem rules the roads of downtown Bangkok, art is taking a backseat to the daily street theater, reports Bangkok Art Map (BAM!), a guide to the city’s diverse art arena published every month and distributed free.

With no immediate end in sight it is uncertain what the long-term fallout will be for Bangkok’s art scene. One artist attempting to instill a spirit of peace and reconciliation to Thai society is Chusak Srikwan in his exhibition at Ardel Gallery of Modern Art. 

BAM! -- now featuring Thai language content as well as English -- has all the details of this exhibit and more as it shares it top picks for the coming weeks with CNNGo.

Shadow Play -- Dharma, until May 30

While many Asians today have long forgotten the art of puppet theater in favor of television, there are certain artists still trying to infuse the craft with contemporary relevance. Nang talung, or shadow puppetry, is the mainstay medium for young artist Chusak Srikwan in his latest exhibition at Ardel Gallery of Modern Art. Chusak uses shadow puppets to create atmospheric installations of varying shapes and sizes that suspend from the gallery ceiling, gently moving like a dangling mobile.      

Ardel Gallery of Modern Art, 99/45 Belle Ville, Boromratchonnanee Rd (Km 10.5), +66 (0)2 422 2092. Open Tuesday-Saturday 10.30am-7pm, Sunday 10.30am-5.30pm.

Abstracted Nature, May 21 to June 12

Maintaining its connections to the Japanese art community, Akko presents abstract painter Kaz Orii’s second solo exhibition in Thailand. The 35-year-old artist assimilates both Western and Eastern aesthetics into his layered abstract compositions. Reflecting nature through Japan’s distinct seasonal cycles, Orii’s palette moves from warm summer hues through to icier tones that resonate with winter’s chill.        

Akko Art Gallery, 919/1 Sukhumvit Rd (btw Soi 49 & 51). Tel: +66 (0)2 259 1436. Open Monday-Saturday, 10am-7pm. BTS: Thonglor

Liberation, until June 6

A follow on from his debut 2007 solo show, Utai Nopsiri displays six new abstract wood sculptures meticulously cleaved by hand. Despite having produced sculpture for over a decade Utai has largely slipped under the radar, but thanks to the recommendation of one of Thailand’s best known artists, Chatchai Puipia, he is at last under the spotlight.

100 Tonson Gallery, 100 Soi Tonson, Phloenchit Road. Tel: +66 (0)2 684 1527. Open Thursday-Sunday, 11am-7pm. BTS: Chitlom

Wonderful Thai Friendship, until June 30

A creative convening point meets imbibing and dining stop, the newly opened WTF (What The F**k) café and gallery could become the new art hangout along Sukhumvit. Playing with the three-floored gallery’s acronym, the debut exhibition Wonderful Thai Friendship features an eclectic gathering of 13 established and emerging Thai and expatriate artists. 

WTF Café & Gallery, 7 Sukhumvit Soi 51. Tel: +66 (0)2 662 6246. Open Wednesday-Sunday, 3-10pm.

Movements Frozen in Time. An Exhibition of Dance Images, until May 28

Featuring nine German photographers, this exhibition features 50 colour and black-and-white photos alongside a video installation capturing the notion of movement in modern dance. The dynamism, drama and fleeting beauty of dance is approached both as documentation and aesthetically, with the resulting images taut with implied action and lyrical grace. 

Goethe Institut, 18/1 Goethe Gasse, Sathorn Soi 1. Tel: +66 (0)2 287 0942. Open daily, 8am-6pm. MRT: Lumphini

All About Her, May 25 to June 30

For her first solo exhibition, artist Bussarapong Thongchai explores her place as a young woman in Thai society. Considering herself both complicit with, as well as defiant against, the stereotypical traits associated with gender roles, Bussarapong’s whimsical caricatured style of painting flits from tenderness to surrender, to occasional protest.

Ardel’s Third Place Gallery, The Third Place, Thonglor Soi 10. Tel: +66 (0)2 422 2092. Open daily, 10am–8:30pm. BTS: Thonglor

Chandramohan, until June 6

Having been censored and arrested for exhibiting provocative erotic art at his university in his native India, Srilamuntula Chandramohan’s studies of the human body are on display in Bangkok for the artist’s debut solo exhibition. The colorful, expressive woodblock prints of elongated torsos are based on self representation with broader analogies to sexual desire and shame. 

Serindia Gallery, OP Garden, Unit 3101, 3201, 4-6 Soi Charoen Krung 36. Tel: +66 (0)2 238 6410. Open Tuesay-Sunday, 11am-8pm

The Truth of Time, the Illusion of Relationship, until May 26

In his first solo exhibition, Witsanupong Noonan combines figurative oil painting with wall mounted fiberglass molds in his illusionary studies of human emotions and relationships within the transitory context of time and space. His compositions largely comprise melancholic females pouting unaware of the ghostly residual presence of male figures occupying the same space. 

Galerie N, 139/5 Wireless Road. +66 (0)2 654 0522. Open Tuesday-Sunday, 10am- 7pm. MRT: Lumphini

Kill Yr Idols, until May 30

Relocating from its former Sukhumvit residence, Nospace has settled in at a more appropriate youth- and music-centered space on RCA. Inspired by the lyrics from a Sonic Youth song, former music promoter and critic Andrew Jones uses video animation and installation for his playful exhibition on idolatry and how the heroes we identify with can ultimately compromise our own value and belief system.   
 
Nospace Gallery, 21/108 Block D, Royal City Avenue (RCA). Open Monday-Tuesday, 11am-7pm, Wednesday-Sunday, 11am-1am. MRT: Phra Ram 9