Event: Art Expo Malaysia 2019 | Booth B15

Weerapong Sansomporn

Weerapong Sansomporn (b.1988), graduated of both Silpakorn University and King Mongkut’s Institute of Technology, has constructed a powerful series centered on the genuineness of perceptions. Multiple winner of the Panasonic contemporary painting competition and best student honors from his fine arts program, Sansomporn’s experience and refined abilities are evident in the superb quality of this abstract works collection. Most recognizable for his elaborate metal works which resemble delicate formations often seen in fabrics and earthly forces, this new series adds a touch of wonder seen in subtle new uses of steel that provide a new focus on determined truths.

Weerapong’s works are through the wrinkles and twists of lines, the eye draws in along the earth tones that are folding and textured, familiar and intrinsic. A closer look reveals a confusing strength of steel, copper, and aluminum flowing into frozen abstractions of our world. Detachments from reality changes how we see our nature, our society, and our concepts with the movements and moments that provide the memories of life in fixed time. The textures resonate organically, as their color and volume draw in their social space. This is connected using unconventional materials that provide a considerable, stagnant strength to elemental moments that are whimsical, dramatic, and passing.

Thanathorn Suppakijjumnong

Thanathorn (b. 1988) is a fast-rising multimedia print artist from Thailand. She utilizes a time-worn typewriter as her vehicle to produce painstakingly detailed works of art that combine figurative and semantic imagery on both 2nd and 3rd dimensions. Her portraits are elaborate and poetic; offering a voice on social behavioral changes, and an introspective look into society. In 2016, her work earned her First Prize at the 5th White Elephant Art Awards with the work entitled “Love and Relationship”.

Thanathorn Suppakijjumnong’s complex printing methods highlight multinational materials, with nostalgic memories of typewriting family’s history. They show records of cultures mixing, with the protagonist typewriters made redundant by the economic pressure of computation that is seen as necessary in the global market. There exists the death and birth of new inventions with the age of a family encapsulated inside.

The new abstract series “What’s Hide In?” engages with the audience to seek for hidden meanings within the artworks. Hinting at these encoded messages are three thematic concepts. The search for love can be nebulous, sending us signals that only make things more confusing. As we climb to find clarity in it all, we can sometimes arrive to a place we never thought we were aiming. The patience we gain in life is honed from our perspectives to see and interpret these searches for love, however it may be. Forms and shapes can mislead us, but we stick with them out of our need to find reassurance in the love in which we invest. Our never-ending attempts to succeed at this can be all-encompassing, or self-fulfilling, depending on our abilities to ever attain our goals. As viewers and participants in these battles, we act out equally to which we observe…which begs us to ask “Can anything ever be hidden that in which we always encounter?”

Kitikong Tilokwattanotai

Kitikong Tilokwattanotai (b.1978). Tilokwattanotai works in printmedia, painting, mixed media and collage. Graduating from Chiangmai University with a B.F.A. (Printmaking) in 2001, Tilokwattanotai relocated to Sydney, Australia in order to complete a Master of Art(Printmaking) at University of New South Wales Arts and Design in 2003. He is the founder and director of Chiangmai Art On Paper – an invitational custom printing studio and gallery which collaborates with Thai as well as international artists in the production of print works. He has held solo exhibitions in Thailand, Singapore, Germany, Japan, USA and Australia as well as being curated in to many international group exhibitions. Tilokwattanotai’s works look at graphic representations of text and alphabet. By abstracting calligraphic marks Tilokwattanotai attempts to ﬁnd beauty in written language. His works are held in several private and public collections including TISCO Art Collection, Rachamankar Hotel, UNSW Arts and Design, Chiangmai University.

This set is from his series “Gregorian”, an exhibition by Kitikong Tilokwattanotai is reminiscent of that historical moment in 1582. Using monoprint approach, the artist worked daily to create prints that reflected his states of mind, thoughts and life events. The prints thus became his diary or journal that he’d kept since the beginning of 2018. While some days were left blank, the monoprints are presented in the calendar format that embodies concepts of time from an artistic approach, ticking along with the Gregorian system that we all now use.

As an abstract artist, Tilokwattanotai improvises each day of his calendar through vivid colour stains without any sketches or plans, exuding the sense of immediacy and freshness of each day he had recorded. The issue that challenges him as well as distinguishes monoprint as a process is that each print can only be created once. This has drawn Kitikong’s interest as he becomes more mature. He has devoted years and years to refining his monoprint skills along with other techniques. As a result, the breath-taking details that appear on each print along with the colour exploitation, magnify the years he committed to practicing the technique. Tilokwattanotai had created his own rhythm and pace, reflecting on his individuality whose days are sometimes left blank and some times compensated; like the idea that time is not absolute but is relative.

Akira Ishiguro

Akira Ishiguro (B. 1974), Japanese artist, his works start with the question of marble and stone materials, which have been valuable to high culture since the ancient times; most notably with the Greeks and Romans. The remnants of their grand architecture is often seen adorned with various marble statues and facades. The strength and beauty of marble has become a modern representation of luxury. It is a material of high status and aristocracy. For Akira, this past links to our current period as society develops and culture changes. The artist presents ideas from the hidden value of materials to the creation of alternative materials or the creation of artificial materials.

The works of Akira Ishiguro start with the question of marble and stone materials, which have been valuable to high culture since the ancient times; most notably with the Greeks and Romans. The remnants of their grand architecture is often seen adorned with various marble statues and facades. The strength and beauty of marble has become a modern representation of luxury. It is a material of high status and aristocracy. For Akira, this past links to our current period as society develops and culture changes.

The artist presents ideas from the hidden value of materials to the creation of alternative materials or the creation of artificial materials.

In the series of marble painting, the artist created largescale paintings of his own craft through simplicity to create questions about the tastes and value of painting. The works instigate the perception of the majority of people towards contemporary painting, using valued materials to create the transfer of its value through painting and to the aesthetic of abstract psychology.

Uttaporn Nimmalaikaew

Uttaporn Nimmalaikaew (b. 1980) received his Bachelor of Fine Arts from King Mongkut’s Institute of Technology and Master of Fine Arts from Silpakorn University. He is one of Thailand’s most exciting and widely admired new-generation artists; winner of the Sovereign Asia Art Prize in 2006, with many solo exhibitions in Thailand, Canada, USA, and Singapore. His artwork had been collected by the Yuhsiu Museum of Art’s collection in Taiwan and the Musée du quai Branly. He currently lives and works in Bangkok, Thailand.

Nimmalaikaew’s recent creative practices explore the nature of vulnerability with the disconnection of desire, and draw connections to this behavior which results in a confusing presence that emanates distress and detachment. The artworks are expressed with a hallucinating collection of various layers of fine, interwoven fabric that sit suspended in an exceptional 3-dimensional configuration. Each piece is painted, printed, shaped and layered to emanate an illusion of our mental chaos.

As the teachings of Buddhism are very meaningful and important to the life of Nimmalaikaew, he has developed the representation through installation art in order to respond better to the content and to have more interaction with the audience. The works’ airy nature also leaves some space and gaps for contemplation on finding common senses between the audience and the artist. These realizations disseminated through the work are connected to the teachings of the Lord Buddha: should the various changes of society today be consciously understood, they could create a balance in the future minds.

Date: 11-13 October 2019 [Private Preview & VIP Night : Thu 10 October]
Venue: MATRADE Exhibition & Convention Centre, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
Preview at: https://www.artsy.net/show/sac-gallery-bangkok