Jim Thompson Art Center

Gridthiya Gaweewong

Curator

Gridthiya Gaweewong (b. 1964, Chiang Rai, Thailand) is Artistic Director of the Jim Thompson Art Center in Bangkok. Together with Rirkrit Tiravanija, she directed the Thailand Biennale 2023/2024 in Chiang Rai. Gridthiya Gaweewong is one of the best-known curators working in Southeast Asia today. After earning her Master of Arts in Administration and Policy from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 1996, Gridthiya co-founded the alternative art space Project 304 with Montien Boonma, Kamol Phaosavasdi, and Apichatpong Weerasethakul (1996–2003). Next to her role as Artistic Director of the Jim Thompson Art Center in Bangkok she is Guest Curator of the MAIIAM Contemporary Art Museum in Chiang Mai. She co-founded the Bangkok Experimental Film Festival with Apichatpong Weerasethakul (1997–2007). Her curatorial projects address issues of social change faced by artists from Thailand and beyond since the Cold War, including Imagined Borders, the 12th Gwangju Biennale (2018), Missing Links, Bangkok (2015), Between Utopia and Dystopia, Mexico City (2011), Internationale Kurzfilmtage Oberhausen, Oberhausen (2009), Politics of Fun, Berlin (2005), and Underconstruction Tokyo (2000–2002). Gaweewong is the Curator of the ICI traveling exhibition Apichatpong Weerasethakul: The Serenity in Madness in Chiang Mai, Manila, Hong Kong, Chicago, Oklahoma, and Taipei (2016–2020).

Rinrada Na Chiangmai

Co-Curator

Rinrada Na Chiangmai (b. 1994, Bangkok, Thailand) is an assistant curator at the Jim Thompson Art Center, and an independent curator/art worker. Rinrada earned her Master’s degree in MFA Curating from Goldsmiths, University of London in 2019. After completing her studies, she worked as a project manager at the Bangkok Art and Culture Centre for three years. In addition to her role at the Jim Thompson Art Center, she is a member of the YOONGLAI Collective, which engages in community-based research, exhibitions, writing, and creative activities aimed at blending art to everyday life. Her work emphasizes reconnecting hidden narratives rooted in specific places and merging them with contemporary contexts and the relationship between spaces and places.

She has also contributed as an assistant researcher for the Canopy Project (2021–2022) and member of This Useful Time Machine (2021–ongoing). Some of her curatorial projects include: ‘Silent Wind, Invisible Waves’ at WTF Gallery and Café, Bangkok (2022), ‘By The Time We Are Gone’ at Safehouse 1, Peckham, London (2019), ‘How Come You Never Go There’ at 310 NXRD, London (2018), ‘Rewind/Fast Forward: Tapes from Freud Museum’ at the Freud Museum, London (2018). At the Jim Thompson Art Center, she has assisted for exhibitions such as: ‘The Disoriented Garden… A Breath of Dream’ by Truong Cong Tung, curated by Duong Manh Hung (2024), ‘Nomadic’ curated by Dr. Vennes Cheng (2024), ‘A HOPE AND PEACE TO END ALL HOPE AND PEACE’ curated by Zoe Butt (2023), ‘How Many Worlds Are We?’ curated by Alexandre Melo (2023).

Chanapol Janhom

Co-Curator

Chanapol Janhom (b. 2001, Bangkok, Thailand) graduated with first-class honors from the Department of Art History, Faculty of Archaeology, Silpakorn University in 2023. Chanapol was a curatorial intern at the Jim Thompson Art Center and the National Gallery of Thailand. He is interested in East Asian art, including Chinese, Japanese, Korean, and Thai art, particularly art that presents landscapes, lifestyles, history, and the relationship between people and space. Chanapol currently works as a assistant project coordinator at the Jim Thompson Art Center, where he is responsible for researching and assisting in organizing various exhibitions, such as 'Lam Loke (The World of Molam)' at Jim Thompson Farm 2023-ongoing and 'Fragmented Reality: Selected Artworks from the DC Collection 2024.'

Almagul Menlibayeva

(Kazakhsta/Germany)

Artist

Almagul Menlibayeva is an award-winning contemporary artist specializing in multi-channel video, photography, and mixed media installation. She lives and works in Germany and Kazakhstan. Her work has been featured internationally at prestigious venues such as the Sydney Biennale in Australia, the Venice Biennale in Italy, the Moscow Biennale in Russia, and the Gangwon International Biennale in South Korea.

Her recent solo exhibitions include "Green, Yellow, Red, and Green again" at TSE Gallery in Astana, Kazakhstan (2018); "Transformation" at Grand Palais in Paris, France (2016-2017); "My Silk Road to You" at Lexing Art in Miami, USA (2016); "Union of the Fire and Water" at the 56th Venice Biennial in Venice, Italy (2015); "Transoxiana Dreams" at Videozone, Ludwig Forum in Aachen, Germany (2014); "Empire of the Memory" at the Ethnographic Museum in Warsaw, Poland (2013); "An Odd for the Wastelands and Gulags" at Kunstraum Innsbruck in Austria (2013); and "EXPO 1: Exploration of Ecological Challenges" at MoMA PS1 in New York, USA.

Her video installations and photography have been widely exhibited at venues such as the Museum van Hedendaagse Kunst (M HKA) in Antwerp, Belgium; the Queens Museum in New York, USA; the Herbert F. Johnson Museum in Ithaca, New York, USA; the Stenersen Museum in Oslo, Norway; the ZKM Museum of Contemporary Art in Karlsruhe, Germany; the University of California, San Diego, California, USA; the Center of Contemporary Art, Zamok Ujazdowskie in Warsaw, Poland; the Museum of Contemporary Art Kiasma in Helsinki, Finland; the Museo Universitario del Chopo in Mexico City, Mexico; the Kulturzentrum bei den Minoriten in Graz, Austria; and the Queensland Art Gallery in Brisbane, Australia.

Menlibayeva’s work explores themes such as Soviet modernity, social and political transformations in post-Soviet Central Asia, and decolonial reimaginings of gender, environmental degradation, and Eurasian nomadic and indigenous cosmologies and mythologies. She won the Main Prize at Munich’s Kino der Kunst International Film Festival in 2013 and was awarded the Chevalier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres by the French Ministry of Culture in 2017.

Au Sow Yee

(Malaysia/Taiwan)

Artist

Au Sow Yee, a Malaysian artist, was a recipient of Honorable Mentions at the 2021 Taipei Art Awards and a finalist for the 2018 Asia Pacific Breweries Signature Art Prize. Her work primarily explores the relationships between images, image-making, history, politics, and power through video installation and other mediums. Sow Yee’s works have been exhibited at the 2023 Sharjah Biennale, the 2022 Busan Biennale, MMCA in Seoul, Mori Art Museum in Tokyo, HKW in Berlin, Shanghai Rockbund Art Museum, Singapore Film Festival, and BACC in Bangkok, among various other exhibitions and screenings. In 2017, she co-founded Kuala Lumpur’s Rumah Attap Library and Collective.

Dinh Q. Lê

Vietnam/USA

Artist

Dinh Q. Lê was a Vietnamese American multimedia artist, best known for his photography work and photo-weaving technique. Many of his works consider the Vietnam War, known as the American War in his native country, as well as methods of memory and how it connects to the present. Other series of his, such From Hollywood to Vietnam, explore the relation of pop culture to personal memory and the difference between history and its portrayals in media. In 2009, the Wall Street Journal described him as "one of the world's most visible Vietnamese contemporary artists".

Chulayarnnon Siriphol

Thailand

Artist

Both a filmmaker and an artist, Siriphol employs moving images and his body as his main medium. His works are wide and varied in genre, ranging from short film, experimental film, documentary to performance video and video installations. From adaptations of local mythology and science fiction to transformation of analog body to digital spirituality, he questions contemporary issues and political ideology through his own sense of sarcasm.

His short film Vanishing Horizon of the Sea won Special Mention from the 2014 Singapore International Film Festival. His solo exhibitions include Behind the Painting, curated by Hiroyuki Hattori, the Art Centre, Silpakorn University, Bangkok, Thailand (2015), Museum of Kirati, Bangkok CityCity Gallery, Bangkok, Thailand (2017). Give Us A Little More Time, Bangkok CityCity Gallery, Bangkok, Thailand (2020). Siriphol has taken part in group exhibitions such as 5th Fukuoka Asian Art Triennale, Fukuoka, Japan (2014), 19th Contemporary Art Festival Sesc Videobrasil, São Paulo, Brazil (2015), Soil and Stones, Souls and Songs, Para Site, Hongkong (2017), Ghost: 2561, Bangkok, Thailand (2018), The 7th Taiwan International Video Art Exhibition, Taipei, Taiwan (2020). His short film, PLANETARIUM, premiered at 2018 Cannes Film Festival as part of 10 YEARS THAILAND, a feature film by four Thai directors (Apichatpong Weerasethakul, Wisit Sasanatieng, Aditya Assarat and Chulayarnnon Siriphol) in the Special Screenings section. He is currently living and working in Bangkok.

Jun Yang

Taiwan/Austria

Artist

Jun Yang is an artist based in Vienna, Taipei and Yokohama. His previous exhibitions include the Biennial of Sydney 2018, the Gwangju Biennale 2018 and 2012; the Taipei Biennial 2008, the Liverpool Biennial 2006, the 51st Biennale di Venezia 2005, and the Manifesta 4 in 2002.

He concluded working on a series of solo-exhibitions/ retrospectives that started at the Art Sonje Center, Seoul (2018) continued at Kunsthaus Graz (2019) and was shown in Taipei at Kuandu Museum 2020, TKG+ Projects 2020/2021 and MoCA Taipei 2021 (as one exhibition at three venues in one city).

Yang decided thereafter to take time off from making exhibitions. With his interest in institutions Yang joined the board of the Vienna Secession in 2021. He sees his latest projects: designing the König bookshop at Bundeskunsthalle Bonn and creating the kitchen and dining-room for the Oskar Schlemmer Haus (Bauhaus Dessau) as part of his interest in art institution structures. He is currently designing and renovating the Cockatoo Canteen at the Jim Thompson Art Center.

Rafal Milach & Sputnik Photo Collective

Poland

Artist

A visual artist and a photographer whose works focus on the transformation of the former Eastern Bloc, Rafal Milach grew up in Silesia, a region of Central Europe located mostly in Poland, with small parts in the Czech Republic and Germany. That background built into him an awareness of history, borders, migration and identity issues stemming from an on-going geopolitical problem. In 2006, Milach co-founded with ten other Central Eastern European photographers the “Sputnik Photos” in an historical area near the Warsaw Ghetto. Taking this collective as the departure point for his on-going research project, Milach investigates post-Soviet Union archives and landscapes in order to construct alternative narratives.

Milach’s photography boasts a minimal aesthestic that plays with the presence and the absence of socialist ideology and propaganda remnants. He writes short texts to accompany the photographs, regarding these as an important element in the context of the works. Selecting sites which have socio-politically and economical significance with strong reference to collective memory is important to him and his works are testimony to the contemporareinity of the post-Soviet countries, subtlely touching on the most critical issues in the Eastern bloc and connecting with discourses regarding the refugee crisis in Europe.

In this exhibition, he shows “Refusal”, a photography series documented on the borders with Georgia after the fall of the USSR. The border disputes between Georgia, Abhazia and South Ossetia led to forced migration and a refugee camp was temporarily built between Georiga and South Ossetia to accommodate refugees from the disputed territory in the South Caucasus. This area was recognized by UN as the ‘former autonomous district of South Ossetia’, but the Russian-backed separatists referred to it as the Republic of South Ossetia, having declared independence in 1991 and been recognized as a state by Russia, Venezuela, Nicaragua and Syria. Another group of photographs shows the unfinished resort of Abkhazia on the border with Georgia, an area only endorsed by Russia and few African countries, which was initiated by the former President of Abkhazia during the 19990s. Abkhazia was known for its beautiful beach and served as the vacation town for the socialists countries during the cold war. Milach observes the architecture and landscape in these post-Soviet frozen conflict zones, showing us how the idea of nation became the soul of these multi-ethnic groups, who resist and fight for their freedom and autonomy.

Som Supaparinya

Thailand

Artist

b. 1973, Chiang Mai, Thailand
Raised in Lamphun, lives and works in Chiang Mai, Thailand. Studied Fine Arts at Chiang Mai University. After graduation, she went to study Media Arts at Hochschule für Grafik und Buchkunst
Leipzig, Germany. She is a pioneer in multichannel (4-ch in 1995) and synchronization video installation (2012) in her region. She created her first video and sound arts in 1995 with cassette recorders, Handycam Video 8, and VHS cameras. However, her works encompass a wide variety of mediums such as installation, created and found objects, still and moving images which have produced mainly with a documentarian and experimentarian approach. The works focus on the impact of human activities on other humans and landscape through political, historical, and literary lenses. The changing landscape by various means motivated her practice. Her works are stories on noodles cultures, the change of the riverscapes, cityscapes, routes, electricity generation, resistance sites and banned books.

International art festivals and biennials; Koganecho Bazzar 2011(Yokohama, 2011), YebisuInternational Festival for Art & Alternative Visions (Japan, 2012, 2018), EVA International [Ireland’s Biennial] (Limerick City, Ireland, 2018), 12th Gwangju Biennale (Gwangju, South Korea, 2018) Cairo Biennale 13 (Cairo, Egypt, 2018), Biennale Jogja Equator #5, (Yogyakarta, Indonesia, 2019), Thailand Biennale (Korat, Thailand, 2021-2022), and 10th Asia Pacific Triennial, (Queensland Art Gallery & Gallery of Modern Art (QAGOMA), Brisbane, Australia, 2021-2022), Documenta 15 (Kassel, Germany, 2022).

Recent exhibitions and residencies: Survey Show: DC Collection of 21st Century Thai Contemporary Arts (DC Collection, Chiang Mai, 2022-2023), 22nd The Silpa Bhirasri Creativity Grants Exhibition (Art-Centre Silpakorn University, Bangkok, 2023), reconnecting.earth (02-03) (Biennale de l’Art et de la Nature Urbaine) – Beyond Water (Genève, Switzerland, 2023, and Stadtgalerie Kiel, Germany (2024) After Hope: Video of Resistance(Peabody Essex Museum, USA, 2023). She was a fellow of the one-year artist in residence - DAAD Artists-in-Berlin Program (Berlin, Germany, 2021-2022) and Elevation Laos (Vientiane, Laos PDR, 2023-2024)

Thasnai Sethaseree

Thailand

Artist

Thasnai Sethaseree is a multi-disciplinary artist whose work bridges the realms of art, politics, social commentary, and the mysteries of existence. His explorations delve deep into the intersections of biology, geography, and the cosmos, where human identity and society's power structures are intertwined with the larger forces shaping life. Thasnai's practice is informed by both academic rigor and a fascination with the unknown, blending scientific curiosity with philosophical inquiry. His art challenges viewers to confront the complexities of history, memory, and social mobility, engaging with critical issues like centralization and the lingering impacts of the Cold War on contemporary Thai society.
Through installations, paintings, and collages, Thasnai invites audiences into vibrant yet unsettling worlds where the unseen realities of power, biology, and the universe are brought into focus. His work reflects the fluidity of life, from the molecular to the cosmic, blurring the lines between the personal and the planetary. A strong advocate for artistic freedom and social change, Thasnai uses his art as a platform for dialogue, exploring the mysteries of existence while pushing boundaries in Thailand and beyond.

Vacharanont Sinvaravatn

Thailand

Artist

​Investigating the spaces we exist in and how they become portrayed and embodied, Vacharanont Sinvaravatn engages with tensions of representation, probing the aesthetic vestiges of real and imagined local histories. Born into a time of intense political upheaval in Thailand, including the 1997 Tom Yam Goong crisis in his birth year, and the series of democratic protests when he was a student, Sinvaravatn has always been interested in how mainstream narratives can condition our belief systems and ways of life. Living in an age of infoxication, Sinvaravatn re-examines histories of political propaganda and image-making. He transforms the traditional landscape genre, embedding subtle skepticism and interrogation in rich pastoral imagery. Mirroring the creation of state-sanctioned illusions, the artist challenges official histories of the Thai countryside, uncovering the region as a site of communist contention and turbulence during the Cold War era. Sinvaravatn ultimately invites us to reconsider the images and narratives imposed upon us, questioning the power dynamics ascribed to definition and representation.

Naeem Mohaiemen

Bangladesh/USA

Artist

Naeem Mohaiemen’s research-led practice encompasses films, installations, and essays about transnational left politics in the period after the Second World War. He investigates the legacies of decolonisation and the erasing and rewriting of memories of political utopias. Mohaiemen combines autobiography and family history to explore how national borders and passports shape the lives of people in turbulent societies. His work focuses on film archives and the way their contents can be lost, fabricated and reanimated. The hope for an as-yet unborn international left, instead of alliances of race and religion, forms his work.

Hyphen— by Grace Samboh, with Andri Setiawan, and Rachel K. Surijata

Indonesia

Artist

Co-initiated in 2011 by Ratna Mufida, Pitra Hutomo, and Grace Samboh
Based in Indonesia

Hyphen— functioned as a sustainable conversational space regarding aesthetic practices. Not long after, that space expanded through engagement in various artistic activities, including exhibition-making, various forms of publishing, archiving, research, open-ended conversations, karaoke, barbecue nights, feasts, etcetera. Hyphen— aims to put forward curiosity and people’s common wellbeing as the estuary of artistic practices. They were joined by Akmalia Rizqita “Chita” and Rachel K. Surijata (in 2020); as well as Ruhaeni Intan and Andri Setiawan (in 2023).

They currently play with explorations on the practices of Indonesia New Art Movement (1975-1989), Kustiyah (1935-2012), and Danarto (1940-2018); exhibition histories surrounding Kesenian Indonesia (Indonesian Art, 1955), BINAL Experimental Arts (1992), Contemporary Art Exhibition of the Non-Aligned Countries (1995); while attempting to unravel Indonesia’s so-called national history through its visual representations.

Keeta Isran

Thailand

Artist

Keeta Isran, curator and founder of Muslimah Collective, a group of new coming female artists located in Narathiwat. Keeta was born in Bangkok, raised in Muslim community in Bangkok called “Baan Krua Community”. Later, her family moved to the south of Thailand after that she went to The Art Student League of New York, USA. Keeta was also joined a group exhibition showing her wooden sculpture for her graduation.

Keeta is a distinctive female artist who portrays her Muslim and cultural tradition in her artworks. She combines her experiences, recollections and the environment in her art. Her works reflect feminine Muslim feelings through forms, facial expressions and meaningful gestures. Keeta has been selected to show her artworks at many museums and galleries. “So Hope” was her solo exhibition at The National Art Gallery. Furthermore, her artworks have won many awards, including Gold and Silver Medals from the Bualuang Painting Competition. A Bronze Medal (Painting), 58th National Exhibition of Art.

Keeta was selected as a new generation female artist of Thailand in the name of ThaiLand Eye. In addition, she was one of the 101 most outstanding artists of Thailand in 2017. She exhibited “Patani Semasa” at MAIIAM Contemporary Art Museum Chiang Mai and Ilham Gallery Kuala Lumpur Malaysia in 2018. Moreover, she is invited to be part of the Bangkok Art Biennale representing Muslimah Collective and artists from the south. There are drawings, printmaking on objects and mixed media; as a set of her memoirs. Her artworks consist of different methods and styles of expression. However, she expresses all matters and personal feelings into a symbolic interpretation in which viewers are encouraged to connect with her deliberate works.

Prateep Suthathongthai

Thailand

Artist

Prateep Suthathongthai was born and raised in Bangkok. He acquired a Master of Fine Arts (Painting) from Silpakorn University. Since 2006 Prateep has been teaching at Faculty of fine art, Mahasarakram University while also maintaining his artistic practice there. His works deploy the technique of photography by using strips of photographic film as a medium. This series of works are inspired by religious objects and architecture, the practice also extends to creating large scale site-specific photo installation. After relocating to the Northeastern region, Prateep has been interested in the disputable history between the national and regional historiography of Isan. The politics of image, knowledge, and memories. In his latest exhibition “A Little Rich Country” at 100 Tonson Gallery Prateep has returned to paintings. He painted the life-size cover of books and printed matters circulated during World War II. The paintings reflect the production of propaganda and collective memories controlled by the state.

Prateep has numerous solo exhibition with 100 Tonson Gallery, Bangkok and he has participated in many international art festivals including Busan Biennale 2008 (Busan, 2008), 2nd Singapore International Photography Festival (Singapore, 2010), Singapore Biennale 2013 (Singapore Art Museum, 2013), 4th Moscow International Biennale for Young Art (Moscow, 2014), inToAsia: Time-based Art Festival 2015 (Queens Museum, New York, 2015). Prateep is currently teaching at Mahasarakram while maintaining a studio practice there.