Bangkok art: In October, an Antarctic chill moves into the city

There is a broad array of international art on display this month, including remote polar photographs by Australian artist Stephen Eastaugh and Argentina’s Carolina Furque.

On view at La Lanta Fine Art, the ambient snow-blanketed landscapes of the North and South Poles are  geographically and visually distant from the  busy, rain-soaked streets of the Thai capital.

Bangkok Art Map (BAM), published free every month in Thai and English, takes a look at these and more in its list of the city's top art shows in the weeks ahead.   

Ant(arctic)a, until November 5

An intrepid husband and wife pairing, Australian Stephen Eastaugh and Argentinean Carolina Furque have independently ventured to the top and bottom of the world to capture the stunning desolate expanses of some of the planet’s last surviving wildernesses.  

As a part of the Australian Antarctic Division’s arts fellowship program, Eastaugh joined numerous field trips across Mac. Robertson Land in East Antarctica, where he worked in the world’s southernmost studio. Capturing the polar light phenomenon of the Aurora Australis, his ethereal color shots of the Antarctic are mystical in their suspended dreamlike atmosphere.  

In the northern Arctic around Greenland, Furque uses her Russian Holga camera to capture monochromatic stills of the dark and mysterious, remote and melancholic.  A viewfinder into a distant realm, the sheen of her old camera and the developing techniques she employs create a blurring of reality and fantasy that contributes a mood of intimate memory.

La Lanta Fine Art, 245/14 Sukhumvit Soi 31. +66 (0)2 260 5381. Open Tuesday-Saturday, 10 a.m.-7 p.m.; Sunday by appointment. www.lalanta.com. BTS: Phrom Phong 

Tales of Love and Betrayal: A Modern Retelling of the Ramayana, until November 6

A hugely influential epic, poet Valmiki’s tale "The Ramayana" was penned over two millennia ago and has inspired many mythologies, including Thailand’s own literary adaptation "The Ramakien."

The Hindu classic has been given contemporary relevance through interpretations by the three Indian artists, Anand Gadapa, Nirmala Biluka, and one of the pioneers of Indian modern art, M.F. Husain.          

Serindia Gallery, OP Garden, Unit 3101, 3201, 4-6 Soi Charoen Krung 36. +66 (0)2 238 6410. Open Tuesday-Sunday, 11 a.m.-8 p.m. Email: serindiagallery@gmail.com

Abject Intervention, until October 19

For the second exhibition at the recently opened non-profit Wai Art space at Baan Bar, expressive painter Supoj Sirirachaneekorn displays a series of acrylic works that combine social commentary with feelings of despair towards the human condition.  

Bold in their aesthetic, the surreal compositions approach the now familiar issue of consumption against spiritualism.

Wai Art, Baan Bar, Soi Rangnam (beside King Power Complex). +66 (0)81 697 4866. www.facebook.com/pages/wai-art. BTS: Victory Monument

Between the Lines, until November 5

Meticulously drafted, the intricate intertwining line drawings of young female artist Jiratchaya     Pripwai are both seductive and mesmerising.  

Resembling delicately embroidered flowing fabrics, the labor intensive monochrome drawings are developed from an automatic writing technique that explores a blurring between the conscious and sub-conscious.

Numthong Gallery, Room 109, Bangkok Co-op Building, Toeddamri Road. +66 (0)2 243 4326. Monday-Saturday, 11 a.m.-6 p.m. www.rama9art.org/gallery/numthong. BTS: Ari

Art 20kg, until October 20

Curated by participating artist Nithiphat Hoisangthong, this eight-strong group exhibition works around the theme of the average airline baggage allowance of 20 kilos.  

Featuring emerging artists such as Krit Ngamsom and Noraset Vaisayakul, the multimedia exhibition takes on themes of transportation, possessions as identity, and weight.     

Artery, Silom Galleria Unit B09, 919/1 Silom Road. +66 (0)2 630 3006. Open Monday-Saturday, 10:30 a.m.-7 p.m. www.arterythailand.com. BTS: Surasak

Bitumen, Gold, Opium and Crows, October 14 – November 10

After last year’s exhibition "48 Portraits of God," Bangkok-based British artist Justin Mills returns     with a new series of paintings inspired by the music of American singer-songwriter Tom Waits.    

Still intrigued by the symbolic materials of earthy bitumen and ethereal gold, these latest compositions attempt a new kind of image that he hopes can be heard as well as seen.     

WTF Gallery & Café, 7 Sukhumvit Soi 51. +66 (0)2 662 6246. Open Wednesday–Sunday, 3 p.m.-10 p.m. www.wtfbangkok.com. BTS: Thonglor 

Songs of the City: Michael Lee and Olivier Pin-Fat, October 13 – November 27

The pairing of Singapore-based Michael Lee and Bangkok resident British artist Olivier Pin-Fat explores the architecture of the urban environment from different perspectives.  

Lee’s fantastical detached analytical renderings of impossible structures contrast with Pin-Fat’s disrupted experiential photographs of the city.  

H Gallery, 201 Soi 12 Sathorn Road. +66 (0)81 310 4428. Open daily, 10 a.m.-6 p.m., Tuesday by appointment. www.hgallerybkk.com. BTS: Surasak

Memoir of Imprinted Imageries, October 19 – November 19

Exotic images of local existence enrich the beautiful woodcut reliefs of female artist Neungrutai Puekpean.

Depicting nostalgic scenes of an idealized way of life with scenes of temples, stilted houses and riverboats, the tactile decorous wood surfaces are born from childhood memories.  

Galerie N, 139/5 Wireless Road. +66 (0)2 654 0522. Open Tuesday-Sunday, 10 a.m.- 7 p.m. www.galerienbangkok.com. MRT: Lumphini 

Dennis Balk at Gallery Ver, until October 29

Bangkok-based U.S. artist Dennis Balk presents his first exhibition in Thailand with a theatrical installation of large-scale graphic works.

Roughly titled "The Cairo Speech Warehouse," the conceptual installation of stacked canvases poses cryptic narrative threads, loaded with art and historical references that viewers are challenged to decipher.

The artist will deliver a talk on his career at the Reading Room on October 8 at 2-4 p.m. Gallery Ver, 194 Tanao Road. +66 (0)2 622 0117. Tuesday-Saturday, 1 p.m.-7 p.m. www.verver.info