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Bangkok art: A restless mind, marginalized clowns and city nights
Bangkok Art Map, the city's essential guide for art lovers, shares its top picks for the coming weeks
BAM, published every month in Thai and English and distributed free in Bangkok, shares its list of the city's top art shows in the weeks ahead.
Bangkok Noir, January 6-30
For Bangkok Noir, Bangkok-based German photographer Ralf Tooten was intrigued by the round-the-clock activity of the city, taking his camera out on the streets to unravel the city’s nocturnal underbelly.
In the tradition of great 20th century lens men Brassai (1899-1984), who famously photographed nighttime Paris during the 1930s, or Czech born Josef Sudek’s (1896-1976) haunting night panoramas of Prague, Tooten proffers what he says is a similar “declaration of love for the nocturnal experience.”
National Gallery, 4 Chao Fah Road. Tel: +66 (0)2 281 2224. Open Wednesday-Sunday, 9 a.m.-4 p.m.
The Mind Never Sleeps, January 7-February 10
Expanding art coverage beyond the capital, BAM adds Liam’s Gallery to its exhibition listings this month.
With a large, eclectic collection of art on offer, Liam’s Gallery in Pattaya is one of the few significant commercial galleries to operate along Thailand’s eastern seaboard.
On view this month, Bangkok based Dutch artist Barro exhibits technically adept surrealist paintings with moralistic undertones.
Liam’s Gallery, 352/107 Pratamnak Rd Soi 4, Pattaya. +66 (0)3 825 1808. Open Tuesday-Sunday, 10 a.m.-7 p.m.
Painted, Tainted, Sainted, January 11–February 28
The performer-prankster, the clown archetype, provides a metaphoric entry point for Bangkok-based U.S. photographer Cameron Wolf’s latest photographic series.
Veiled in various guises and ritualized actions, he symbolically appropriates the clown image to express the duality of someone accepted yet marginal, exposed yet hidden. Within this context, his fixation is directed toward the personas of drag queen and performers.
Eat Me, Soi Phi Phat 2, Convent Road. Tel: +66 (0)2 238 0931. Open daily, 3 p.m.-1 a.m. BTS: Sala Daeng
Disc is Dead, Disco is Alive!, January 12–March 8
Chiang Mai-based Sutthirat Supaparinya is a rising media artist known for her video installations and interactive situational art.
Incorporating reflective and transparent surfaces with pixellated distortions from advertising banners, her recent works have become increasingly politically and socially motivated as she examines the invasive saturation of media in the digital age.
WTF Gallery, 7 Sukhumvit Soi 51. Tel: +66 (0)2-662-6246. Open Wednesday–Sunday, 3 p.m.-10 p.m. BTS: Thonglor.
Ocean, January 15–28
There’s a northern European flavor at the National this month with the work of German photographer Ralf Tooten and Norwegian artist Christian Wolther.
Resident in Thailand since 2006, Wolther’s abstract minimal paintings, video installation, glass works, and photos impart a holistic experience hoping to improve world order.
National Gallery, 4 Chao Fah Road. Tel: +66 (0)2 281 2224. Open Wednesday-Sunday, 9 a.m.-4 p.m.
Slow Down, January 7–February 12
Artist Noraset Vaisayakul, a new media lecturer at Naresuan University in Phitsanulok, presents video work associated with loneliness and the abandonment of the "self."
Relating to Buddhist notions of nothingness and the significance of the individual, the artist believes the more he discovers about existence, the more hopeless he feels.
Chulalongkorn University Art Centre, Centre of Academic Resources, Chulalongkorn University, Phaya Thai Road. Tel: +66 (0)2 218 2965. Open Monday-Friday, 9 a.m.-7 p.m., Saturday 9 a.m.-4 p.m. BTS: Siam
Live, Love & Let Die, January 20–February 20
For her third solo exhibition in Thailand, ceramic artist Nino Sarabutra continues with her playful and sensual approach to clay, creating functional and decorative objects that she presents as an installation.
She has crafted illuminated skulls surrounded by delicate butterflies, motifs on life and death recurrent in Damien Hirst’s art.
Ardel’s Third Place Gallery, The Third Place, Thonglor Soi 10. Tel: +66 (0)2 422 2092. Open daily, 10 a.m.–8:30 p.m. BTS: Thonglor
Endless Desire -- Hu! Hu! Hu!, January 21–February 28
Preyawit Nilachulaka’s provocative paintings are both fascinated and concerned with the behavioral lifestyle changes affecting young Thai adults.
A member of rock band Instinct, Preyawit’s pop-influenced paintings and sculptures explore notions of superficial appearance and inner persona; manipulation, deceit, power and control.
Gossip Gallery, Silom Galleria 3F, 919/1 Silom Road Soi 19. Tel: +66 (0)2 637 7878. Open Monday-Saturday, 10 a.m.-7 p.m. BTS: Surasak
Hybrid Technology, until January 30
Porntaweesak Rimsakul’s kinetic installations and functional objects bring awareness to energy consumption and the technology it fuels.
On display is a car that operates by a hand crank, accompanied by a video showing the car in operation, and a number of petrol pumps customized into lights, that are illuminated by repeated sitting down on seat cushions –- rectal power at work.
100 Tonson Gallery, Phloenchit Road. Tel: +66 (0)2 684 1527. Open Thursday-Sunday, 11 a.m.-7 p.m. BTS: Chitlom
Published monthly, the Bangkok Art Map (BAM!) is a free monthly guide to Bangkok’s growing art arena. Now featuring both English and Thai, it’s put together by Steven Petifor, one of Thailand’s leading art writers, and is available all over the city.
