Boonkasem Sae-Kwoa at Jamjuree Art Gallery, Bangkok

Bangkok, Thailand hosts an upcoming watercolour exhibition soon and it’s always refreshing to experience what we think of as European traditional styles in non-European countries.  The focus of this exhibition is Boonkasem Sae-Kwoa, a resident of Krabi in south west Thailand who will be displaying a collection of some 50 or so watercolour paintings.

Boonkasem’s work is largely inspired by the Andaman Sea, the body of water which stretches west from the coast of Thailand and is home to some of Asia’s best beaches.  The exhibition is entitled “Home Is Where The Heart Is” and Boonkasem says that:

“Home is where we feel comfortable and safe.  There were times I forgot my Andaman home which has been part of my life.  And “Home Is Where The Heart Is” is the meaning of this exhibition.  It portrays my big world – the Andaman world in which I live with freedom in my mind.”

The exhibition will be held at Jamjuree Art Gallery, owned and run by Chulalongkorn University and situated in the commercial area of Bangkok, just one block down from the MBK shopping centre for those who know Bangkok.  Jamjuree Art Gallery is more accustomed to displaying Thai historical works related to the University’s history departments but occasionally dips it’s toe into other mediums.

Money raised from this event will go towards humanitarian activities  at a charity called the Nat Association in Krabi and the exhibition itself will also be displayed there after passing through Phuket also.

 

Viktor Mitic at Gallery Moos, Toronto

Viktor Mitic is an interesting character;  regarded as taking much of his influence from gestural art.  The 1950s played host to a

whole host of experimental abstract expressionists, some of course better than others and in the 1960s artists such as Yves Klein worked with innovative styles which almost certainly influenced Viktor Mitic’s most famous works – his ‘bullet paintings’ – which are made by shooting a revolver through the canvas.

This exhibition is something a little different and perhaps a little more accessible for fans of traditional watercolour.  Described as ‘rain paintings’, Mitic combines watercolour styles with the haphazard nature of rainfall.  The origin of Mitic’s ‘rain paintings’ is one of chance.  He prefers to paint outside and on one occasion left the canvas for a break, returning to find it had begun to rain and that “the rain had produced some interesting effects on the canvas.”

This discovery led to Viktor Mitic actually painting in the rain, mixing the minute planning of a watercolour with the random splashes of a rain shower.  Mitic also stresses that the liquid must be rain; other water does not have the correct mixture of minerals and chemicals as the artist has discovered through trail and error.

The Serbian born Mitic has a history of simultaneously releasing films and books alongside his exhibitions and this is no exception.  A book and a short film will accompany the Gallery Moos show.