At Nova Contemporary, Bangkok, a show recontextualizes the nation’s modern masters – and makes the past feel as expansive as the future.
On a quiet side street near Bangkok’s Nova Contemporary, a local picture framer is opening up shop. Propped up outside are prints and paintings awaiting frames – mostly depicting Thai royals. Such portraits punctuate Thailand’s visual landscape; let the gaze wander in any small business with an auntie behind the counter, and you’re bound to lock eyes with a monarch eventually. Chakrabhand Posayakrit’s glowing portrait His Majesty King Bhumibol Adulyadej (1986) is a favourite, emblematic of both the sensual traditionalism for which Posayakrit is known, and the courtly subjects that many canonical Thai modern artists used to make their names.
With the exhibition ‘Emergent Figures,’ curator Chanon Kenji Praepipatmongkol reframes such prevailing understandings of the nation's modern masters, offering them the chance to emerge anew.