A brand new solo exhibition by Thai artist Kantapon Metheekul, higher generally known as Gongkan, is ready to open at Tang Up to date Artwork, simply in time for Artwork Basel Hong Kong. Titled Asynchronous Affinities, the present is a play on the proverbial thought of “proper particular person, incorrect time” as some extent of departure, utilizing it as a lens to discover the fragile ambiguity of interpersonal relationships, social conditions and modern life at massive.
This physique of labor marks a brand new chapter for the Bangkok-based painter, as he approaches social criticism and particular person growth in common scenes of celebration, consuming and play. The delightfully uncanny vignettes broaden on the artist’s oeuvre which follows the journey of a younger boy – a illustration of himself – as he drifts between cosmic areas, cross-cultural contexts and luxurious landscapes. Rendered in mushy veils of pigments and subdued hues, and minimalist kinds, Gongkan’s works preserve a quiet, meditative power, during which the fashion itself turns into a metaphor for the liminal areas for collective understanding.
Drawing on his Chinese language roots – particularly the Teochew neighborhood of Chaoshan – the artist paints the complexities of id and the nuances that emerge from these transcultural hyperlinks; a blue-and-white porcelain bowl turns into a shower for 2 of his signature characters in “Non-Conventional Recipe,” whereas in “Limitless Reflection,” figures whose heads bear the likes of Thai temple spires, emerge from a sequence of portals. Gongkan will even introduce a brand new set up: a rotating Chinese language eating desk set with “dishes” product of artifacts that deconstruct client tradition: knotted quick vogue clothes mimic buns; journal strips are spun into noodles and CD stacks resemble Peking duck wraps.
On this house, Gongkan raises questions round misaligned – or “asynchronous” – affinities that have an effect on us throughout cultural, social and financial traces. Playful but incisive, the work displays the push and pull of the forces that outline us, and in embracing this motion, the artist invitations us right into a fluid world world of his personal making, the place cultures merge and diverge and id is rarely mounted however in fixed movement – very like the folks navigating these shifting landscapes.
Asynchronous Affinities open on March 22 and can stay on view till Could 14. Head to the gallery’s web site for extra particulars.
Tang Up to date Artwork Hong Kong
10/F H Queen’s,
80 Queen’s Highway Central,
Central, Hong Kong
