Tang Contemporary Art presents Tracing Places, Weaving Times, curated by Cynthia Liu and Terry Chong, on exhibit from 17 January 2026 – 1 March 2026, in Bangkok.  This group exhibition brings together three Thai artists—Sornchai Pongsa, Butsapasila Wanjing, and Amalapon Robinson—whose practices explore how identity is formed at the intersection of place, culture, and memory. 

Whether bridging rural borderlands and urban density or myth and lived reality, the exhibition offers a multilayered portrait of Thailand as experienced through the next generation of artists born between the 1990s and 2000s.  Moving between the past and the present, between the personal and the collective, the exhibition invites viewers to consider how Thailand’s many stories are carried, reshaped, and reimagined across generations.  

Across Thailand’s diverse regions, cultural identities emerge not only from formal histories but from the intimate details of daily life—traditions passed on quietly, stories shared casually, materials handled out of habit and necessity. These nuances, often invisible from the outside, form the true texture of the Thai identity. Grounded in this idea, the featured artists draw from the spaces they grew up in—mountainous borders, northern villages, Bangkok’s layered urban sprawl—yet render their memories through contemporary visual languages. Each distinct, yet interconnected, their practices echo, diverge, and intersect, forming an open-ended narrative about belonging, change, and continuity. Together, they present Thailand not as a single story but as a complex and evolving constellation of histories, ethnicities, and lived realities.

Sornchai Pongsa: Diaspora, Displacement, Becoming

Hailing from a Mon community along Thailand’s Western border, Sornchai Pongsa’s work emerges from a lived experience shaped by cultural inheritance, displacement, and adaptation. His conceptual practice draws on the intertwined history of his family and people—stories marked by movement, negotiation, and survival. Drawing from familial stories, local histories, and the complexities of modern existence, Sornchai’s pieces evoke a sense of loss and adaptation, yet also resilience and redefinition.  Through powerful visual forms and mixed media artworks, he captures the simultaneous ache for what is left behind and the urgency to forge new identities and preservation of traditions in unfamiliar landscapes.  His pieces become vessels for memory—at once fragile and forceful—inviting viewers to witness the multi-layered experience of diaspora within the Thai context.

Building on his earlier work Mon Spirits Totem (2016), Pongsa presents a technologically infused meditation on “statelessness,” conceptualizing the body and territory as absent hardware and the spirit as enduring software. Through ethereal installations of suspended structures and volumes of light, he visualizes the migration of identity from the physical to the metaphysical, raising profound questions about the persistence of ritual and belief in a digitized era. His work emphasizes both loss and adaptation, showing how cultural memory endures even when physical borders are absent. 

Butsapasila Wanjing: Memory, Myth, and the Remaking of History

Butsapasila Wanjing approaches memory as something formed not only through official histories but through the informal stories embedded in everyday life. His practice draws from Lanna culture, folkloric and mystical beliefs, childhood memories of Chiang Mai, and raw materials collected from the northern landscapes he grew up in. His works—textured, layered, and enigmatic—entice viewers to look closer, searching for traces of narratives that have been transformed, suppressed, or forgotten.

A central focus of his recent work is the rewriting of historical memory spaces.  Butsapasila’s exploration extends beyond Thailand’s borders. His exploration of overland trade routes examines the longstanding cultural and economic relationships between Thailand and mainland China. From ancient exchanges of goods and knowledge along the Tea Horse Road—glazed ceramics, tea-making traditions, the role of horses—to their later integration into the vast Silk Road network, he traces how these routes shaped communal life in the borderlands.

In the present, he observes how the Belt and Road Initiative has reshaped these ancient corridors into pathways of capital, cross-border investment, and sometimes illicit or informal economies. What were once routes of cultural circulation have become sites where geopolitical power is contested and negotiated. Through paintings and mixed-media presentations, Butsapasila renders these overlapping histories visible—revealing the delicate interplay between memory, state power, regional identity, and the shifting forces that continue to shape northern Thailand.

Amalapon Robinson: Urban Light, Inner Loneliness

In contrast to the northern landscapes and border narratives of Sornchai and Butsapasila, Amalapon Robinson turns her gaze toward the dense urban rhythms of Bangkok—a city of constant illumination. Growing up between two cultures, Amalapon investigates identity and belonging within a metropolis defined by artificial light. Her hauntingly beautiful oil paintings capture intimate domestic scenes and everyday urban moments, using the interplay of radiance and shadow to reflect the emotional undercurrents of city life.

In her work, light becomes both a physical necessity and a metaphor for searching—searching for connection, clarity, or simply a sense of place amid the city’s overwhelming glare. While there is always light in darkness, Amalapon reveals how urban brightness can coexist with profound loneliness. Her paintings resonate with quiet intensity, suggesting that in a world saturated with illumination, the most meaningful forms of luminosity may be internal.

Together, these three artists illustrate the many ways Thai identity is shaped—by geography, by memory, by generations of cultural inheritance, and by the changing landscapes of modern life. Their works bridge past and present, local and national, rural and urban, inviting viewers to consider how individual stories intersect to form a broader cultural tapestry.

Tracing Places, Weaving Times does not offer a singular definition of Thai identity. Instead, it opens a space for reflection—on where we come from, what we carry, and how our surroundings continually shape who we are becoming. Through the perspectives of the next generation of Thai artists, the exhibition presents the Thai experience as a place of layered histories, evolving cultures, and rich, interconnected experiences.

Venue
Tang Contemporary Art Bangkok

Artists
Sornchai Phongsa, Butsapasila Wanjing, Amalapon Robinson

Exhibtion Dates
17 January – 1 March, 2026

Gallery Hours
Tuesday – Sunday | 11 AM – 7 PM

Website
https://www.tangcontemporary.com

Instagram
https://www.instagram.com/tangcontemporaryart/

Contact
bkk@tangcontemporary.com

About the Artists

SORNCHAI PHONGSA

b. 1991, Thailand

Sornchai Phongsa was born and raised within the Mon ethnic community in Thailand, an upbringing that shaped his engagement with migration, displacement, and hybrid identities in Southeast Asia. Drawing on his heritage and academic training and having graduated from Silpakorn University with a BFA in 2015 and an MFA in 2017, Phongsa develops a visual language that interweaves personal memory, collective history, and socio-political narratives.

Working across installation and mixed-media, he employs vernacular materials and performative spatial strategies to recontextualize spiritual traditions and interrogate the politics of belonging and territory. Key projects include Mon’s Spirits Totem (Bangkok Art and Culture Centre, 2017), Montopia (Cité Internationale des Arts, Paris, 2018), Le Flash (École nationale supérieure des Beaux-Arts, Paris, 2018), and Alien Capital for the Bangkok Art Biennale (2018).

Phongsa has participated in residencies at Tokyo Arts and Space and Cité Internationale des Arts, with works presented in exhibitions including Dogma Yard (Gallery Seescape, Chiang Mai) and MythMakers—Spectrosynthesis III 神話製造者——光.合作用 III (Tai Kwun Contemporary, Hong Kong, 2023).

In 2025, he presented his solo exhibition Diaspora at River City Bangkok, investigating displacement and hybrid identities among marginalized communities. He continues to develop research-driven projects exploring memory, migration, and the shifting cartographies of place and identity, extending his critical engagement with contemporary social and cultural transformations.

BUTSAPASILA WANJING

b. 2000, Chiang Mai, Thailand

Butsapasila Wanjing graduated from Silpakorn University in 2022 with a Bachelor’s of Fine Arts.  His work delves into the historical and cultural landscapes of Thailand, addressing political, social, and environmental themes.

Butsapasila is interested in the processes through which collective memory of the past transforms over time, leaving traces and effects that persist into the present. His practice draws on diverse sources, including historical narratives shaped by conspiracy theories found in blogs and online media, supernatural beliefs transmitted through oral traditions, and local myths and fragmented histories that cannot be fully integrated into dominant, centralized historical narratives. 

By also examining personal memory, he seeks to connect individual experience with broader social and cultural dynamics, reflecting on how the past is continually reinterpreted from multiple perspectives in the present and how these shifting understandings shape contemporary perceptions of history and identity.

AMALAPON ROBINSON

b. 1995, USA

Born 1995, Thai-American artist, Amalapon Robinson graduated from Silpakorn University in 2019.  She has exhibited in group exhibitions in Thailand, at VS Gallery, Bangkok Art and Culture Centre, and Silapakorn University.  Working primarily in oil painting, her practice explores quiet emotional landscapes within urban night scenes, with a focus on artificial light from windows, street lamps, and interior spaces.

Raised in an apartment in Bangkok, Amalapon draws from long-term observation of dense urban environments. Her paintings often emerge from moments of looking at the city from a distance, through windows or during night-time travel where artificial light becomes a symbol of living and working, carrying traces of life, hope, and dreams within the city. Through muted palettes and softened contrasts, her work captures a sense of calm and stillness embedded in ordinary, often overlooked urban spaces.

Amalapon explores the interactions between light and darkness – investigating how we use and engage with artificial lights in our everyday lives, and how urban society is dependent on this use of light.  Though there is light in darkness physically, living in a city can result in a feeling of loneliness and isolation.  This juxtaposition between the physical use of light and its metaphorical meaning is represented in her works, as she seeks more luminosity within the city.

About Tang Contemporary Art

Since its founding in Bangkok in 1997, Tang Contemporary Art has opened 8 spaces in Beijing, Hong Kong, Bangkok, Seoul and Singapore to promote the development of experimental art in different regions. In the past 28 years, Tang Contemporary Art has organized groundbreaking exhibitions in its gallery spaces, and also cooperated with important art institutions in China and abroad to accomplish outstanding art projects. The gallery strives to initiate dialogue between artists, curators, collectors and institutions working both locally and internationally. A roster of groundbreaking exhibitions has earned Tang Contemporary Art internationally renowned recognition, establishing its status as a pioneer of the contemporary art scene in Asia. 

As one of China’s most influential contemporary art platforms, Tang Contemporary Art maintains a high standard of exhibition programming. Tang Contemporary Art represents or collaborates with leading figures in international contemporary art, including Ai Weiwei, Huang Yongping, Shen Yuan, Zhu Jinshi, Chen Danqing, Liu Qinghe, Liu Xiaodong, Chen Shaoxiong, Wang Yuping, Shen Ling, Shen Liang, Wu Yi, Xia Xiaowan, He Duoling, Mao Xuhui, Wang Huangsheng, Yang Jiechang, Tan Ping, Wang Du，Yan Lei, Yue Minjun, Wang Jianwei, Yangjiang Group, Zheng Guogu, Lin Yilin, Sun Yuan&Peng Yu, Qin Ga, Wang Qingsong, Yin Zhaoyang, Feng Yan, Guo Wei, Chen Wenbo, Ling Jian, Qin Qi, Yang Yong, Peng Wei, He An, Zhao Zhao, Xu Qu, Chen Yujun, Chen Yufan, Xue Feng, Cai Lei, Li Qing, Wang Sishun, Xu Xiaoguo, Lí Wei, Liu Yujia, Wu Wei, Yang Bodu, You Yong, Li Erpeng, Jade Ching-yuk Ng, Michelangelo Pistoletto, Adel Abdessemed, Niki de Saint Phalle, AES+F , Michael Zelehosk, Jonas Burgert, Christian Lemmerz, Michael Kvium, Sakarin Krue-On, Rirkrit Tiravanija, Natee Utarit, Kitti Narod, Gongkan, Entang Wiharso, Heri Dono, Nam June Paik, Park Seungmo, Jae Yong Kim, Diren Lee, Dinh Q. Lê, Rodel Tapaya, Jigger Cruz, Ayka Go, Raffy Napay, H.H.Lim, Etsu Egami, etc.

(Text and images courtesy of Tang Contemporary Art)

Bangkok Art and Culture Centre, in collaboration with Space for Contemporary Art and Korean Foundation for International Cultural Exchange, co-organises an international exhibition, Undo Planet. The exhibition Undo Planet uses art as a medium to examine possibilities for restoring nature. The artists join in wrestling with the issue of global climate change, offering various attempts and suggestions as to how our crisis-stricken Earth might be restored which consists of two parts: Undo DMZ and Land Art and Non-Human Beings.

The title “Undo DMZ” originates in DMZ Un-Do, the name of a work by artist Haegue Yang. “Undo DMZ” uses art as a lens to imagine the current DMZ—a symbol of war and division that teems with soldiers—as a setting where the recovery of wildness and biodiversity has only been encouraged by the restrictions on people’s access. The exhibition starts with works associated with birds, animals that are capable of freely flying over human-made national boundaries. Adrian Göllner’s Trace (2023), Young In Hong’s White Cranes and Snowfall (2024) and Accidental Paradise (2025), and Jin-me Yoon’s Dreaming Birds Know No Borders (2021) all adopt birds as themes. 

Trace started from the artist’s interest in birds that inhabit the DMZ or pass through it on their migrations. After observing wild birds during a residency near the DMZ, Göllner created drawings reflecting the presence of birds that live in the refuge represented by a space on the boundaries, outside the field of human view. Hong’s White Cranes and Snowfall is an installation work in which eight pairs of shoes made with sedge have been placed on white pebbles. The resulting world conveys the impression of the shoes of a crane having been set down on snow. The work is presented alongside the same artist’s Accidental Paradise, a sound-based work combining the cries of cranes with the artist’s own voice and natural sounds from the DMZ. This work breaks down the hierarchies between species and the boundaries separating fiction from truth and stories from voices. Yoon’s Dreaming Birds Know No Borders is a video work focusing on the story of an ornithologist whose family was separated by the Korean War. Through the medium of a traditional Korean crane dance, it connects history and place with the disconnection within family.

Following these bird-centred works are creations by the Thai artist Akkachet Sikkakorn and the Korean artist Joon Kim. Sikkakorn’s Fragile Memories (2025) was based on a field survey examining records of the war in the DMZ region, along with the ecological environment and cultural memories. The artist makes use of protective talismans originating in Buddhist culture as the work re-examines the stories of the “Little Tigers,” a Thai regiment that fought in the Korean War. Kim’s Mixed signals (2025), an installation work based on sounds and images gathered from the DMZ’s border region, offers a setting where surveillance and ecology intersect. Acoustic sounds from nature and electromagnetic symbols are presented through a drawer-like operation device and a horizontally rotating sculpture, guiding the viewer to actively examine a DMZ landscape where disparate signals exist in layered form.

The next space features work by the Korean artist collective of Kyung Jin Zoh, Cho Hye Ryeong and the Vietnamese artist Tuan Mami. Zoh and Cho’s Parallel Botany (2023) focuses on plants referred to by different names in North and South Korea. The video work shows these botanical names being recited in the same language yet different words. Exhibited with it is DMZ Botanic Garden (2019–Present), which presents 23 plant specimens representative of the flora in the DMZ, bearing narratives of division as they collectively form an ecological and cultural landscape of the DMZ’s natural environment. Tuan Mami focuses on mugwort, a plant that he discovered during his DMZ research in Borderless Garden (no.2) (2025). Found across various regions in Asia, mugwort is a plant characterised by its ability to grow across borders in different climate environments. To show its vitality and mobility, the artist personally cultivated mugwort gathered in Thailand (the site of the exhibition), Vietnam (his own home country), Taiwan, and Korea’s DMZ. A work of wall art inspired by Korea’s foundational Dangun myth expands this legendary narrative of an animal’s human transformation into linkages between plants, animals, and people. This serves a mediating role in terms of the overall exhibition, as it leads into the second part titled “Land Art and Non-Human Beings.”

The final space presents work by artist Haegue Yang—with honeybees playing a mediating part—and by ikkibawiKrrr. Yang’s DMZ Un-Do (2020) is a wallpaper-based work that juxtaposes various signs and symbolic images into something resembling radar: barbed wire, a “last rest area” sign, a hydroelectric power dam, a windmill, lightning, puzzle pieces, and more. This is a visualisation of the complex identity and energy of the Korean Peninsula as a setting where boundaries intersect with movement, tradition with modernity, and reality with imagination. Another creation by Yang, an animated work titled Yellow Dance (2024), adopts a honeybee named “Bonghee” as its central character as it tells the history of the Cold War in a monodrama format. The connected sculpture installations Palanquin Bee Soul Site (2024) and Lighthouse Bee Double Mansion (2024) are also mediated by bees, originating from the structures of hives used in apiculture. The work of ikkibawiKrrr is presented on the path leading out of the exhibition. Rhapsody (2024) focuses on spaces that are like “openings” in the DMZ: places that are not perceived because they exist outside our field of vision, places where the restriction of human access has ironically made them important for the natural growth of plant life. Exhibited together with this video is graffiti-based work that makes use of plants gathered from inside the Civilian Control Zone. It depicts the plants as being like invaders occupying a space vacated by human beings. Rhapsody shows plants awaiting the day they can be sent to North Korea, as the sounds of shells serve as a symbol of the Cold War. This alludes metaphorically to a laboratory preparing for a future that may someday come.

This exhibition was supported by the Korean Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, and Korean Foundation for International Cultural Exchange (KOFICE) as part of the “Touring K-Arts” project.

Venue
Main Exhibition Gallery, 7th floor, Bangkok Art and Culture Centre

Artists
Adrian Göllner, Akkachet Sikkakorn, Haegue Yang, ikkibawiKrrr, Jin-me Yoon, Joon Kim, Kyung Jin Zoh/ Cho Hye Ryeong, Tuan Mami, Young In Hong

Exhibition Dates
October 25 – November 25, 2025

Gallery Hours
Tuesday – Sunday | 10 AM – 8 PM

Website
http://www.bacc.or.th

Instagram
https://www.instagram.com/baccbangkok/

Contact
exhibition.bacc@gmail.com

(Text and images courtesy of Bangkok Art and Culture Centre (BACC) )