Tuesday, September 13, 2011
BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE
Kriangkrai Kongkhanun
Born 1980 in Bangkok,Thailand.
Education :
1999
Diploma,College of Fine Arts, Bangkok, Thailand.
2003
B.F.A. Printmaking, 2nd Hon., Department of Fine Arts, King Mongkut’s Institute of Technology Ladkrabang, Bangkok, Thailand.
2007
Diploma, Accademia di Belle Arti di Firenze, Florence Italy.
2010
M.F.A. Printmaking, Silpakorn University, Bangkok, Thailand.
Email : kongkhanun@gmail.com
Solo Exhibitions
Selected Group Exhibitions
Prizes and distinctions
2002
“Stateman Prem Tinnasulanon” Foundation Scholarship.
Special Prize, 14th Toshiba “Brings Good Things to Life” Art Competition, Bangkok.
2003
Silpakorn Pradit Award, 20th Exhibition of Contemporary Art by Young Artists, Bangkok.
Diploma from Department of Fine Art, King Mongkut’s of Technology Ladkrabang for The Best Studying Record.
2006
Italian Goverment Scholarship.
2009
2nd Prize, Silver Medal (Graphic Arts), The 55th National Exhibition of Art, Bangkok.
Special Prize, 21st Toshiba “Brings Good Things to Life” Art Competition, Bangkok.
2010
1st Prize, Office of Contemporary Art and Culture, The 56th National Exhibition of Art, Bangkok.
Solo Exhibitions
2010 “ Spiritual Disease ” at Number 1 Gallery, Bangkok.
2011 “ Oceanic Wilderness ” at Number 1 Gallery, Art HK 11, Hong Kong.
Selected Group Exhibitions
2001
The 13rd Toshiba “Brings Good Things to Life” Art Competition, Bangkok.
2002
Hitachi 7th Painting Contest “ Inspire the Next”, Bangkok.
The 19th Exhibition of Contemporary Art by Young Artists, Bangkok.
The 14th Toshiba “Brings Good Thing to Life” Art Competition, Bangkok.
Tokyo International Mini – Print 2002, Tokyo, Japan.
International Mini – Print and Bookplate Exhibition, Cluj – Napoca, Romania.
2003
The 20th Exhibition of Contemporary Art by Young Artists, Bangkok.
The 15th Toshiba “Brings Good Thing to Life” Art Competition, Bangkok.
The 49th National Exhibition of Art, Bangkok.
"Monday Printmaking" Group Exhibition, Baan Bangkok Gallery, Bangkok.
3rd International Small Engraving Exhibition – Cremona 2003, Italy.
4th Kyoto International Woodprint Association (KIWA) Exhibition, Kyoto, Japan.
1st International Mini Print de Sarajevo, Bosnia.
International Mini – Print Biennial Cluj-2003, Cluj-Napoca, Romania.
International Graphic Art Triennial Bitola 2003, Macedonia.
4th Egyptian International Print Triennial 2003, Egypt.
5th International Small Engraving Salon Carbunai 2003, Romania.
3rd Annual International Miniatures Exhibition Little m 2003, Lithuania.
2nd International Biennial of Mini-Print-Tatovo, Macedonia
X Biennial Guadalupana Images Guadlupanas III, Mexico.
2004
10th Anniversary of The Department of Fine Arts , King Mongkut’s Instite of Technology Ladkrabang, Bangkok.
The 50th National Exhibition of Art , Bangkok.
6th International Small Engraving Salon Carbunai 2004, Romania.
2nd International Mini Print de Sarajevo, Bosnia.
2005
The 51st National Exhibition of Art , Bangkok.
Tokyo International Mini – Print 2005, Tokyo, Japan.
‘‘ 1st Color up The Family ’’ Art Exhibition, Silom Galleria, Bangkok
11th International Biennial of Small Graphics and Exlibris – Ostrów Wielkopolski 2005, Poland.
Busan International Print Art Festival, Busan,Korea.
2nd International Experimental Engraving Biennial, Timisoara,Romania.
6th The “ Iosif Iser ” International Contemporary Engraving Biennial Exhibition, Ploiesti, Romania.
International Mini – Print Biennial Cluj-2005, Cluj-Napoca, Romania.
3rd International Biennial of Mini-Print-Tatovo, Macedonia
1st International Small Size Engraving Salon “ Inter-Grabado” 2005, Uruguay, South America.
2006
5th Egyptian International Print Triennial 2006, Egypt
8th International Small Engraving Salon Carbunai 2006, Romania.
12th International Biennial Print and Drawing Exhibition 2006, R.O.C.
4th International Biennial of Graphic Art 2006, Francavilla al Mare – Sant Carles de la Ràpita, Italy and Spain.
2nd International Mini – Print 2006, Timisoara,Romania.
2007
The 53rd National Exhibition of Art , Bangkok.
5th Kyoto International Woodprint Association (KIWA) Exhibition, Kyoto, Japan.
Art Exhibition “Accademia in Mostra 2007”,Florence, Italy.
7th The “ Iosif Iser ” International Contemporary Engraving Biennial Exhibition, Ploiesti, Romania.
3rd International Experimental Engraving Biennial, Timisoara,Romania.
2008
The 54th National Exhibition of Art , Bangkok.
5th International Biennial of Graphic Art 2008, Francavilla al Mare – Sant Carles de la Ràpita,Italy and Spain.
3rd Beijing International Art Biennale (BIAB),Beijing, China.
4th International Biennial of Mini-Print-Tatovo, Macedonia.
1st International Competition Exhibition Mini Print and Ex Libris, Milan, Italy.
2009
The 55th National Exhibition of Art , Bangkok.
21st Toshiba “Brings Good Things to Life” Art Competition, Bangkok.
9th International Graphic and Ex-libris Exposition, Casale Monferrato, Italy.
15th International Print Biennial Exhibition Varna 2009,Boris Georgiev Art Gallery, Bulgaria.
8th The “ Iosif Iser ” International Contemporary Engraving Biennial Exhibition, Ploiesti, Romania.
5th International Biennial of Mini-Print-Tatovo, Macedonia.
2010
The 56th National Exhibition of Art , Bangkok.
Another Side, Contemporary Artists’ Dreams, La Lanta Fine Art, Bangkok.
Smallery Art Exhibition, ARDEL’s Third Place Gallery, Bangkok.
Art Exhibition “Thai-Chinese Art Exchange” , National Art Gallery, Bangkok and Xian, China.
4th Ars Maris Art Festival, Cluj-Napoca, Romania.
7th International Triennial of Small Graphic Forms Vilnius, Vilnius, Lithuania.
Art Taipei 2010 , Taipei, Taiwan.
2nd Penang International Print Exhibition, Penang State Art Gallery, Penang, Malaysia.
2011
The 57th National Exhibition of Art, Bangkok.
10th International Graphic and Ex-libris Exposition, Casale Monferrato, Italy.
6th Kyoto International Woodprint Association (KIWA) Exhibition, Kyoto, Japan.
2nd Qijang International Print Exhibition Chongqing, China.
“ Thai Artists ” Khaas Art Gallery, Islamabad, Pakistan.
“ Believer’s Paradise ” Koel Gallery, Karachi, Pakistan.
2012
The
“ On The Threshold of The Senses ”, Tally Beck Contemporary, New York, USA.
15th International Biennial Print
Exhibition 2012, R.O.C.
6th International Printmaking Biennial of Duoro-2012, Alijó, Portugal.
Friday, July 8, 2011
" Hell Within "
Brian Curtin
How do we imagine hell, as a place?
In fact, our views of hell are typically not of a place but a space defined by the horrors occurring, though skewed perspective and disproportionate scale is an architectonic
feature. Moreover, a sense of descent is usually evident. Anthropomorphic and biomorphic forms move, turn and twist in terms of an urgent force of transformation.
The extremities of bodies grab, kick, embrace and resist frantically. Power is brutal and explicitly rendered in view of its opposite. Inversions occur: corporeal interiors become exterior; the end of life appears as the beginning of some form of existence; and perceptions of ‘low’ and ‘high’ are subverted. The hybrid as grotesque is pervasive, and the spectacular and sensational all-encompassing.
In fact, our views of hell are typically not of a place but a space defined by the horrors occurring, though skewed perspective and disproportionate scale is an architectonic
feature. Moreover, a sense of descent is usually evident. Anthropomorphic and biomorphic forms move, turn and twist in terms of an urgent force of transformation.
The extremities of bodies grab, kick, embrace and resist frantically. Power is brutal and explicitly rendered in view of its opposite. Inversions occur: corporeal interiors become exterior; the end of life appears as the beginning of some form of existence; and perceptions of ‘low’ and ‘high’ are subverted. The hybrid as grotesque is pervasive, and the spectacular and sensational all-encompassing.
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Like many artists in Thailand, Kriangkrai is influenced by Theravada Buddhism, where spiritual practice aims at breaking away from samsara or the endless cycles of life and death within the Thribumi. The artist cites Thribumi or Three Worlds: a cosmological and hierarchical worldview, dating from the Sukhothai period of Thailand in the 14th century, in which humans live in the midst of the Realm of Sensation. Vivid descriptions of deities, devils and hellish animals provide a rich source for Kriangkrai in terms of how these creatures are so creatively rendered and understood as effecting, as well as representing, the world we live in. Most importantly, they give shape to the analogous rather than the scientific.
Kriangkrai’s prints recall the diffuse compositions of cosmological maps. While hierarchies are operative, purported minor details prove just as compelling as a central focus. His works are aggressive engagements with unpalatable aspects of how we understand ourselves, from the casual to the profound. We ultimately learn to recognize that we are the source of the evil we often believe is Other.
Dr. Brian Curtin is an Irish-born art critic and curator based in Bangkok.
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| Kriangkrai Kongkhanun,Spiritual Disease 5, Woodcut,200 x 100 cm,2009 |
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| Kriangkrai Kongkhanun,Spiritual Disease 7, Woodcut,200 x 100 cm,2009 |
" Images of Evil "
Axel Feuss
Despite major differences between Christianity and Buddhist ethics, their perception of the world and philosophy of life, obvious parallels also exist. Both religions point the way towards deliverance from selfishness, spiritual blindness and from succumbing to worldly desires. In both cases, religious experience and inner transformation offer a practical path to salvation. Not only intrinsic moral values but also an all-embracing call for goodness, joy, compassion and love are mutual fundamental traits. The yearning for discipline, justice, morality and an ethical conduct in Buddhist teachings is likewise a fundamental component of Christian thought. The image of evil is also similar. Both religions recognise demons and Hell where, after death, sinners are mercilessly tormented by the inhabitants of the Underworld for their shortcomings on Earth.
One of the greatest masterpieces of traditional Thai literature, King Lithai’s Traibhumikatha (The Three Worlds), written in the mid 14th century, describes the three different realms of Hell in the First World where the torment to which sinners are subjected serves to purify them and rid them of their shortcomings. In Buddhism, salvation comes ultimately to everyone whereas in Christianity, the fires of Hell burn for all eternity. Thai Buddhists are generally familiar with the imagery in Traibhumikatha from temple murals. Even today, young artists studying traditional Thai painting at art colleges still draw on the imagery found in ancient Buddhist art and its myths, fables and tales, weaving it into a highly decorative and narrative fabric of people, animals and unknown creatures which are equally fascinating to a foreigner’s eyes.
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In contemporary western art, pictures of demons, fantastic creatures, Hell and the Underworld are seldom to be found. Paintings of the Late Gothic period and the Renaissance immediately spring to the minds of those familiar with European art, however – Mathias Gruenewald, Pieter Brueghel the Elder and his son, the ‘Hell Brueghel’ – as well as Symbolist painting in the second half of the 19th century, Gustave Doré’s illustrations for Dante’s Divine Comedy and Milton’s Paradise Lost, or Moreau, Redon, Böcklin and Klinger. Today, monsters and demons and the fantastic worlds they populate are largely to be found in the world of the comic and animation film. Kriangkrai Kongkhanun, who studied at art schools in Thailand as well as in Italy, visiting the most important art museums in the West on a trip to Europe, makes a daring attempt to forge a link between the Buddhist symbolism found in traditional pictures and the western imagery of the Renaissance and the 19th century. The Buddhist codex of ethics conditions his life philosophy and way of thinking. The point of departure for Kriangkrai’s art is, however, the knowledge that negative human traits, such as anger, hatred and selfishness, namely evil properties, are so closely woven into human life that they always resurface from the subconscious.
Images of evil concealed within the subconscious form the predominant theme in Kriangkrai’s art. In etchings made in 2001, images of the smallest of primeval creatures and amorphous coloured forms and shapes mutated into images of demons. Insect-like creatures filled his imaginary world of Purgatory. The following year, he switched to woodcuts as this technique gave him greater possibilities for expression for his depiction of creatures from the realm of shadows. They should give the viewer an idea of what awaits sinners in Hell. Ancient illustrations for Traibhumikatha, the book of Heaven and Hell, and the pictorial symbolism of Buddhist mural painting provided the inspiration for Kriangkrai’s interpretation of evil and Hell. In European art history, depictions of the temptation of St. Anthony and his being tormented by the Devil and demons by Hieronymus Bosch (c. 1505/10) and Matthias Gruenewald (c. 1515), for example, are close to Kriangkrai’s world of thought. Gustave Doré’s steel engraving for Inferno of 1861, to illustrate Dante Alighieri’s journey in the Divine Comedy through Hell in the afterlife, drew the artist into a close pictorial relation with his own vision of Hell as understood in Buddhism. Kriangkrai’s series of woodcuts ‘Touching of An Ignorance’ of 2009 once again refers to the eternal desires that arise out of the subconscious and that mankind cannot resist despite his striving for good. From a correctly dressed individual in a suit and tie, they develop into a four-headed monster with countless eyes and faces, holding the mask of evil up to the winged chimera. In the series ‘Spiritual Disease’ four related pictures in each case with different winged demons, insects with human heads, fantastic reptiles, carnivorous plants with snarling jaws and wondrous flowers and vegetation represent the scourge of the soul. The demons of the Underworld are not shown as realistically imaginable creatures but as the embodiment of evil. They are Hell on earth. 
Despite all art-historical references, Kriangkrai’s imagery has a considerable strength of its own and reflects an unmistakable personal style. The little details, figures and structures cut into the wood are just as precisely executed as the larger shapes that dictate a picture’s overall composition. The interspersion of black and white, structured, monochromatic fields heightens the element of suspense, the pictorial surface being designed as a dramatically composed ornamental form comprising fascinating individual shapes. For this series of works the artist won a major award at the 55th National Art Exhibition in Bangkok and succeeded in beguiling not only experts in Thailand itself but western critics as well. Since 2003 his works have been shown at numerous exhibitions of graphic works in Europe and in South America, as well as in Japan and China.
Dr. Axel Feuss (Curator, Freelance Writer and Guest Lecturer in Art History at Silpakorn University.) |
“Oceanic Wilderness ”
Steven Pettifor
A vast expanse of the planet’s surface, the world’s oceans are one of the last unexplored territories for man to unfurl and inevitably exploit. Since ancient times, the great blue seas have stirred the depths of the human imagination, invoking myths of the monstrous creatures like the Kraken, or more seductive mermaids and sirens. In Thailand’s rich spiritual and animistic iconography, the water dwelling Naga serpents are powerful protective deities.
A magnet for tourists, the foreboding reality of Thailand’s coastal waters is one of over fishing and increasing pollution from manmade detritus. Netted by negligent fisherman, the Irrawaddy dolphin is close to extinction and the graceful turtle fares little better in a bleak forecast for Asia’s aquatic species.
Art Exhibition "Oceanic Wilderness " by Kriangkrai Kongkhanun at Art HK 11
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Art Exhibition "Oceanic Wilderness " by Kriangkrai Kongkhanun at Art HK 11
Continuing in his allegorical crusade to expose man’s spiritual malaise, previously manifested in the 2009 series Spiritual Disease, 31-year-old Kriangkrai Kongkhanun presents his latest prophetic woodblock prints. In Oceanic Wilderness, dorsal and tentacle entwine with pelagic and crustacean as they grapple with menacing anthropomorphic bestial forms. Unseen giants lurking beneath that cast analogies to our own personal demons, the artist also interweaves sperm and vaginal motifs in relation to consumption and reproduction.
The large-scale monochrome renderings are intricately carved rectilinear compositions that imply a journey of descent or ascent, depending on our interpretation. Evoking the symbolic decorative carvings featured in the architecture of Buddhist temples, the prints are infused with a contemporary countenance. Kriangkrai cleaves a cannibalistic devouring of souls in the relentless pursuit of individual aggrandisement. His hellish vision is symptomatic to much of Asia in its drive to develop and succeed.
Kriangkrai’s art maintains a firm tethering to his Buddhist heritage, with many Thai artists similarly pushing a morality conscious agenda. Invoking the surreal visions of Gothic painter Hieronymus Bosch, essentially his approach is struggle of good versus evil, that earthly desire and the ego negates spiritual enlightenment. Bound to the fundamentals of major world religions, this precept has pegged written and visual language for millennia.
Having attained a BFA in Printmaking (2003) from King Mongkut Institute of Technology Ladkrabang, in Bangkok, in 2006 Kriangkrai was awarded a scholarship by the Italian government to study at the Accademia di Belle Arti di Firenze, in Florence. His unique woodblock compositions have warranted inclusion in several international print expositions, biennials and triennials. Kriangkrai’s pertinent prints are proof of Thai art’s continuing proximity to craft traditions and techniques, and the contemporary currency instilled upon otherwise marginal forms.
Steven Pettifor, Steven is a British born art writer and curator based in Bangkok
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| Art Exhibition "Oceanic Wilderness " by Kriangkrai Kongkhanun at Art HK 11 |
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| Art Exhibition "Oceanic Wilderness " by Kriangkrai Kongkhanun at Art HK 11 |
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| Art Exhibition "Oceanic Wilderness " by Kriangkrai Kongkhanun at Art HK 11 |
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| Kriangkrai Kongkhanun,Oceanic Wilderness 1,Woodcut,200x100 cm,2011 |
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