One of the benefits of having people work for me is that I can send them to many exhibitions, while I concentrate on the important stuff, like cropping artwork in Photoshop. Yesterday, my colleagues Boum and Jib, went to Number 1 Gallery to see Retrospective, by Alongkorn Lauwatthana.
Alongkorn was born in 1964 in Thailand.
Educated at Silpakorn University, he has exhibited widely in Thailand, as well as in countries such as Korea, Denmark and India.
The title of the exhibition, Retrospective, gives me a slight sensation of a Greatest Hits album by the Rolling Stones.
It’s a reasonable conclusion as the work on show ranges from 1980 to 2007.
The painting on the left was started in 1995 but completed only this year and it is somewhat emblematic of the development of Alongkorn’s style.
I think it would be fair to say that he has always painted vivid, Buddhist influenced imagery, but the style has changed considerably over the years.
This work comes from 1996 and is representative of work the artist was creating in the middle to late 1990s.
The medium is acrylic and gold leaf on canvas and I quite like it.
I am not known as a big fan of Buddhist related art but Alongkorn is very skilled at it.
I like the fact that he is willing to experiment and test the edges of his art.
I like that he is not constrained by the Buddhist influence, using it as inspiration rather than limitation.
I also like way his style has developed over the years, though my favorite period would be the work he created between 1998 and 2001.
Retropsective runs until March 1, 2007 at Number 1 Gallery in Silom. It’s worth a visit.
You can find more details at the gallery website, Number 1.
You can also find more pictures from the exhibition on the artThailand website, at Retrospective.
