The work conveys the impact of being surrounded by chaos in everyday life through such problems as Bangkok’s traffic gridlock, urban sprawl, the deferred construction of transport infrastructure and mass transit system outages.

The richness in detail and the message behind the painting made this artwork a unanimous choice for this year’s top award.

“I have encountered all these issues and I admit that they have frustrated me. Instead of complaining, I used them as my inspiration in creating my artwork. As someone who has only embarked on a career as an artist in recent years, I am honoured to win the UOB Thailand Painting of the Year award. This international and contemporary art competition has provided me with a rewarding experience,” said Apiwat, 38.

His winning work was in the Established Artist category and he received a cash prize of US$25,000 (Bt750,000). The work will also go on to compete against the winning entries from Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore in the UOB Southeast Asian Painting of the Year Award.

Apiwat also stands a chance to win a one-month residency at the Fukuoka Asian Art Museum in Japan.

In the Emerging Artist category, 27-year-old Chaichana Luetrakun won the UOB Most Promising Artist of the Year award for his painting “Rhythm of Transformation No. 4”. The acrylic painting uses a landscape of junk cars to represent the change in humans through time. The artist views society as consisting of people with different backgrounds, experiences and memories. He reinterprets the human form through the asymmetrical arrangement of cars to symbolise how humans grow up and become different elements driving a society.

Tan Choon Hin, president and chief executive officer of UOB (Thai), said that the art competition is one of the company’s ways of engaging and giving back to the community.

“We believe in supporting and encouraging those in our community who have passion, talent and drive. For close to a decade, the competition has helped to launch the careers of many promising artists in Thailand and to provide an avenue for the country’s emerging and established artists to share their works with a wider audience across the region. By creating opportunities for artistic talent to pursue their passion, we hope to discover and nurture the next generation of great Southeast Asian artists. We would like to congratulate this year’s winners and we hope all the artists will continue to pursue their passion and to realise their potential,” he said.

The panel of judges for this year’s UOB Painting of the Year competition was made up of Asst Prof Somporn Rodboon, art instructor Amrit Chusuwan, and celebrated artist Chalermchai Kositpipat.

The winning and shortlisted paintings from both the established and emerging categories are on view at the Bangkok Art and Culture Centre until October 11 before moving to UOB (Thai)’s Head Office on Sathorn Road from October 12 to 26.

TWO MAJOR exhibitions opening in Paris on Wednesday counterpoint the work of a pair of art world rebels – Jean-Michel Basquiat and Egon Schiele.

Although the black New Yorker who began as a graffiti artist and the early 20th-century Viennese painter came from very different worlds and eras, both lived hard, died young and battled their demons on canvas.

“Their gaze goes right through us,” says Suzanne Page, director of the Foundation Louis Vuitton, which is staging both retrospectives.

 “Zydeco”, left, and “Discography” are among 100 Basquiat paintings on view at the Foundation Louis Vuitton in Paris. /AFP

While Basquiat personified the rebellion of the young New York street artists of the 1980s who stormed the grand galleries, Schiele’s erotic charge exploded out of the city where Freud was challenging taboos about sex and developing his theories of psychoanalysis.

The heads and bodies they painted show “the human being from the interior to the exterior”, Page says. “Both were prolific and had protean talent, both were on missions that went beyond them, and both worked in deep waters.”

Basquiat, who came from a mixed Haitian and Puerto Rican family, is now the most expensive American painter ever, with one of his skull paintings selling for $110.5 million (Bt3.6 billion) in New York last year.

Detail of Basquiat’s “The Wall of Heads”  /EPA-EFE 

It also holds the record price for an artwork created anywhere since 1980.

That canvas, “Untitled”, was bought by former Japanese pop star and Internet tycoon Yusaku Maezawa and is part of the Paris show of some 100 of his works.

A square in the French capital was also named after Basquiat last weekend.

And on Tuesday night at the show’s private view, Hollywood star Owen Wilson rubbed shoulders with footballer David Beckham and the painter’s family.

Such is the demand for his work that one-fifth of the 100 most expensive paintings sold at auction in the last year have been Basquiats, according to the Artprice index.

Basquiat died age 27 of a drug overdose in 1988 after eight years of intense creativity after Andy Warhol spotted his poetic, provocative and humorous tags.

He had begun with an aerosol can in his native Brooklyn and lower Manhattan as part of a duo called Samo – their slang term for the “same old shit” of American society that they denounced.

Schiele’s “Lovers Couple”  /EPA-EFE

Like Schiele, he quit school early, and curator Dieter Buchhart says they also both shared a sharp “existential” line.

Although Basquiat has come to be seen as a penniless street artist raging against racism, the artist who gets regularly name-checked by rappers such as Jay-Z actually came from a well-off family and went to an expensive private school.

He was trilingual in Spanish, French and English by the age of four and had haunted the Big Apple’s museums with his mother from an equally early age.

It was she who also gave him, after he was knocked down by a car at age eight, the anatomy book that would become the motor for his imagination, Page says.

“He was enormously cultured, high and low, taking in everything. Young people from all cultures really identify with that. Basquiat never lost contact with the street and mixed the two up.”

Schiele lived in different place and time, but had much in common with Basquiat. /EPA-EFE

Schiele – also known for his raw, unsparing self-portraits – lived a year longer than Basquiat, dying at 28 during the Spanish flu pandemic that was sweeping a war-weakened Europe.

The raw sexuality of his work and his focus on sex and death made him notorious and landed him in prison, condemned as a pornographer.

His wife Edith, who was pregnant, died three days before him, also of the disease, and his final works were sketches of her.

Basquiat too “hardly had time to live”, notes French art critic Christian Noorbergen. “But he challenged art in every way, raging against racism and all the conformities that crushed real life.

“His assault on cultural barriers was staggering, scary and sublime.”

The shows, which are being staged separately at the Foundation Louis Vuitton, continue until January 14.

CUBAN ARTIST Tania Bruguera on Monday unveiled an installation in London on the theme of migration, in which viewers use their body heat to make a portrait of a young Syrian refugee appear on the floor.

She is the latest artist commissioned to exhibit in the Tate Modern’s Turbine Hall, a vast space in the former industrial building by the River Thames turned into a home for modern art since 2000.

This year Bruguera has chosen to leave the hall – boasting 3,000 square metres and 30-metre-high ceilings – largely empty, except for a large grey rectangle painted on the ground framing an invisible portrait of a young Syrian refugee.

Bruguera, centre, unveils her art project, for which viewers are blasted with an organic compound that induces tears. /EPA-EFE

He left the war-torn country in 2011 and after arriving in Britain received support from local NGOs based in the community surrounding the Tate Modern.

But his image only appears if visitors cooperate by stretching out on the black heat-sensitive floor together to activate the thermo-chromatic ink that details the portrait.

“It’s a reflection on the times we live on, where it seems it’s necessary that everybody works together, even if they don’t believe in the same issues, even if they have different political agendas, even if they are unknown to each other,” Bruguera said.

“It’s kind of an antidote to selfies culture,” curator Catherine Wood added, “and to the way we often consume news stories and tragedies alone.”

Bruguera lies surrounded by volunteers in the Turbine Hall of the Tate Modern at the opening of her commissioned exhibition “10,142,926”. /AFP

The exhibition also features accompanying low-frequency sounds composed by Scottish sound artist Steve Goodman, known as Kode9, adding to the disturbing undercurrent felt within the hall.

“It’s almost another presence, because the whole piece is about invisibility, like immigrants’ lives, they have to be invisible,” Wood said.

Similarly, nothing at the stealth installation – what to |look for, how to find it – is explained directly to visitors, who are left to work things out for themselves.

“It’s okay if somebody comes and never discovers what’s happening because that’s what happens in life – a lot of people pass by and they don’t see what’s going on,” Bruguera laughed.

The work’s title is fluid too.

It’s an ever-increasing figure, representing the number of people who migrated globally last year, added to the number of migrant deaths recorded so far this year.

The changing total, intended to show the sheer scale of migration and risks involved, is stamped with red ink on visitors’ hands on entering a small room adjacent to the hall.

At the same time, they are hit by the release of an organic compound to induce tears.

The artist has described the feature as provoking “forced empathy” while Tate Modern director Frances Morris said “it’s a way of moving from statistics to emotions”.

A self-described “dissatisfied plastics artist” who lives and works in Havana and New York, Bruguera has been arrested several times in Cuba for her work but insists she does not seek out provocation.

“I look for avenues to open conversations, and sometimes the bigger the conversation you want to open, the louder your argument has to be,” she said.

The exhibition continues through February 24.

Abdul Abdullah, Aditya Novali, Alfredo and Isabel Aquilizan, Anida Yoeu Ali, Ho Tzu Nyen, Jakkai Siributr, Jun Nguyen-Hatsushiba, Nindityo Adipurnomo, Nipan Oranniwesna, Nontawat Numbenchapol, Pao Houa Her, Paphonsak La-or, Piyarat Piyapongwiwat, Prapat Jiwarangsan, Ryan Villamael, Sawangwongse Yawnghwe, Svay Sareth, and The Maw Naing are among the artists exploring the issues of displacement and hybridity of the region through contemporary art. The show is curated by Loredana Pazzini-Paracciani.

On November 3-4, Thai artist Jakkai will conduct a public workshop that actively engages the audience through the medium of embroidery to revisit past and recent histories of migration and exodus of local communities. This workshop continues the artist’s ongoing commitment to the ethnic minorities of Southeast Asia, with hands-on activities conducted at various locations in the region and beyond.

On December 22-23, Taiwanese artist Charwei Tsai will hold a special screening, specifically showing together three video works of the “Singing Project” Series. Through the universal language of song, these works shed light on the condition of migration and displacement in the United Kingdom, Nepal and Southeast Asia. Selected works were commissioned by the Hayward Gallery and featured at Southbank Centre, London, in 2017.

All activities are open to the public, and registration is required. Admission fees are Bt150 for adult and Bt100 for senior and student.

For further information and registration, go to http://www.Maiiam.com and its Facebook page.

The 36-year-old actress, model and producer had been a ubiquitous household name in China for years and tasted Hollywood success with a role in the 2014 blockbuster “X-Men: Days of Future Past.”

But she disappeared from the public eye and her once active social media presence went silent in May after allegations emerged that she had evaded taxes on a lucrative movie shoot, charges her studio called “slander”.

Her sudden absence from screens and advertisements across the country spurred rumors that she had been snatched by officials at a time when Beijing is cracking down on what it views as excesses in the film and television industry.

Chinese tax authorities have now laid at least part of the mystery to rest, ruling that both Fan and companies controlled by her failed to pay tens of millions of dollars in taxes, the official Xinhua news service reported on Wednesday.

The report said Fan would have to pay a total of 883 million yuan ($129 million) in owed taxes, fines and penalties, adding that she would avoid criminal prosecution as long as she met a repayment deadline.

At least one other person implicated in the probe has been detained for further investigation related to concealing and “deliberately destroying” accounting documents, Xinhua added without detailing that person’s identity.

– ‘No Fan Bingbing’ –

Fan took to China’s Twitter-like Weibo on Wednesday to acknowledge her wrongs, beg for her supporters’ forgiveness, and apologise to “society, the friends who care about me, the public and the national tax authorities.”

“Without the Party and country’s good policies, without the loving attention of the masses, there would be no Fan Bingbing,” she wrote.

Following the investigation into Fan, authorities have declared a wider crackdown on the entertainment industry, Xinhua said.

Offenders are being offered an amnesty until December 31 to pay any taxes they owe.

Fan’s troubles began in May soon after she appeared on the red carpet at Cannes film festival when a former presenter for state-run China Central Television (CCTV) posted a purported movie shoot contract.

The documents suggested Fan was officially paid 10 million yuan ($1.45 million) for a project while unofficially receiving an additional 50 million yuan — all for four days of work.

So-called “yin and yang” dual contract arrangements — with one contract for income declared to tax authorities while the other is kept secret — are reported to be used in China to evade taxes.

After the contract documents went viral, the national tax administration announced it had instructed authorities in eastern Jiangsu province to investigate alleged use of such dual contracts in the entertainment industry.

Fan was not mentioned by name but she has businesses registered in Jiangsu.

Last year, Fan topped Forbes magazine’s list of top-earning Chinese celebrities with income of 300 million yuan ($43 million).

She is one of five leading international actresses cast in the forthcoming Hollywood spy thriller “355”, alongside Jessica Chastain and Penelope Cruz.

But her star has dimmed among authorities in China.

A recent report by academics listing the “social ranking” of Chinese celebrities placed Fan at the very bottom with a score of zero.

The study was widely carried by Chinese state media.

THE DUSIT THANI BANGKOK recently offered a wonderful opportunity to admire Siamese and Thai fashion craftsmanship at its pinnacle, as applied to the attire of the royal court from the dawn of the Ayutthaya Period to recent times.

Dr Surat Jongda served as curator for the exhibition “Timeless Legend”, borrowing from various sources, such as the private collection of fabric historian Paothong Thongchua. He loaned a century-old shawl of silk that gleamed with gold and silver thread.

Worn over a lace blouse in the British Victorian style, it actually helped form a classic Siamese outfit in the days of King Rama V when paired with jongkraben, the shiny silk wrap that was worn draped as trousers.

The royal wardrobe has always featured ornate embroidering.

From Puthipong Piencharoeng’s collection came a necklace of precious stones also about 100 years old and an ornamental gold headdress.

Other contributors were clothing-design masters such as Dr Veeratham Trakulguenthai and Adhit Dhirakittiwat, and Peeramon Chomdhavat, founder and artistic director of the Arpon-Ngam Dance Theatre.

Surat characterised his “fashion show” as a form of “time travel divided into three acts – Assumed Devaraja, Brilliantly Rattanakosin and Siam Renaissance”.

“Thais traditionally believed the king was a devaraja, semi-divine, and the kings of the Ayutthaya period would wear clothing of meticulous needlework and refined embroidery, decorated with precious gems,” he said.

“The typical ensemble of the nobility in those times featured three elements – the clothing, the jewellery and the headdress – together signifying the wearer’s social status. Then, when Siamese society began encountering the West, the clothing designs changed.”

Surat pointed out that, even if the fabric deteriorates over time, the patterns and print motifs can be preserved. Conservationists consult the national archives and study old paintings.

Every boy’s rite of passage on reaching adolescence was the trimming of the topknot in a Brahmin ceremony.

“There you can see the Theppanom patterns with their angels or deities performing respectful gestures, the lotus-like Poom Khao Bin pattern often found in old Sukhothai architecture, and the Pikul flower motif.

“The Hang-Kra-Rok pattern, which entails twisting together two strands of silk, was popular among men during the reigns of Kings Rama V and VI.”

The monarchs of classical Ayutthaya would wear jongkraben made with fabric from India adorned with Siamese patterns and prints. The torso was usually clad in two layers of clothing and decorated with elaborate accessories. The headdress would in its shape and design take the likeness of a deity, one such example of which was found buried at Wat Ratchaburana.

Ayutthaya princesses were wound in a large, single piece of fabric that was completed with necklaces, bangles and belts to indicate their class. The children of royalty and ladies in waiting too were dressed just as beautifully, the latter often wearing pleated shawls.

When Phraya Kosathibodi visited Paris 400 years ago as an envoy of King Narai of Ayutthaya, the French were mesmerised by his delegation’s costumes. A painting of the scene shows the Siamese ambassador dressed in a white outer gown of Persian influence with a cloth wrap around the waist and the tall headdress known as a lompok.

Accessories worn by princesses in Ayutthaya reflected their class.

Act II of Surat’s exhibition moved into the early Rattanakosin Period, which inherited the late Ayutthaya styles of attire, but the first kings of the Chakri Dynasty wore even more-ornate embroidery and decoration. The royal headdress now bore feathers in the French fashion.

Queens were exquisitely gowned with complex ornamentation. Court women in the reign of Rama II wore sarongs with a wrap covering the upper torso. Under Rama III, men tended to go barechested and women took a fancy to fabrics from China.

The “Siam Renaissance” collection completed the history of Thai court attire with the tale of Rama IV’s ambassadors to Britain and France being pleased that precious Siamese items previously presented as gifts were by then on display in foreign museums.

Western fashion assured there would be reciprocal influence. Men shaved and kept their hair short. Women adopted the jongkraben, topped by layered blouses and pleated shawls, and they too wore their hair short.

The fabrics came mainly from India but were decorated with traditional Siamese patterns. During Rama V’s reign, Victorian lace became quite popular among noblewomen and the men wore suit jackets with high collars. Both genders favoured silk jongkraben trousers in plain tones, and white stockings or socks.

Thai manners of dress became increasingly “modernised” in the Western sense – tuxedos for men and lace blouses and skirts for women. Rama VI, seeking a more “civilised” image for the country, overtly discouraged his subjects from wearing Western dress over a sarong, just as he disdained the habit of chewing betel nuts.

Arriving in recent times, the exhibition found Her Majesty Queen Sirikit initiating dramatic Thai-centred changes in the way people dressed. She championed Thai silk and by personal example showed how elegant clothing made with it could be.

Rulers of the Ayutthaya Period were revered as semidivine and dressed the part.

There were eight “Thai Prarajaniyom” styles designated for specific occasions, and one of them was dubbed “Thai Dusit” style.

Peeramon Chomdhavat of the Arpon-Ngam Dance Theatre has been conserving embroidered traditional costumes for more than 20 years. The Thai Dusit evening dress, he explained, had a sleeveless top of golden silk, hand-embroidered with sparkling crystals. A flounce enlivened the front of the skirt and all the material bore a Pikul flower motif.

No survey of Thai attire is complete without reference to the theatrical khon costume, the most elaborate and well crafted of all. Surat has for 10 years worked on the khon shows presented annually by the Queen’s Support Foundation, and he has a treat ready for next month’s performance.

The audience will, for the first time in a century, see actors onstage wearing Nakhon Si Thammarat brocades. Reviving this magnificent article of clothing required special training in weaving for more than 40 members of the Baan Thammang Handicraft Centre Amphoe Chienyai and Baan Trok Kae Handicraft Centre Amphoe Cha-uad in Nakhon Si Thammarat.

This kind of care and attention is of course beyond the capabilities of most people, but Surat gets a kick out of just seeing young people – who usually can’t afford silk – wearing a T-shirt screened with the traditional patterns and print motifs. “I see that and I feel happy already,” he laughs.

 World-class visionaries and innovators will be presenting ideas in various design disciplines, from multimedia and interaction design to landscape architecture and urban development, costume design and art direction.

“Not only do the exhibitions represent an extension of our diversified academic programmes, they are also a platform for us to engage with the wider public, to raise interest and arouse discussion about the importance of design in our lives,” says principal Dr Lay Lian Ong.

From October 6 to January 27, the multimedia exhibition “Interactive and Playful – Swiss Design from Zurich University of the Arts” will present 10 recent outstanding projects by students and graduates in industrial design, visual communication, sensory explorations and interactive installations.

Highlights include the interactive kinetic light installation “Through Momentum”; and “Titan Arum”, an interactive installation of the extremely rare moment of the blooming of the largest flower in the world. “Smell Forward” is a fictional exploration of the scents of the past, present and future.

The exhibition “Ronan & Erwan Bouroullec – Urban Daydreaming” will feature urban development scenarios from October 27 to February 17.

Borrowed from the Vitra Design Museum, the Bouroullec brothers are one of the most internationally sought-after designer duos of the decade. They won the Designer of the Year Wallpaper Design Award in 2016 and were among the judges in 2017.

The French siblings will show 20 sets of research models and animations, giving visitors a wide-ranging study of possible urban-development solutions.

“Clouds” is a half-pergola, half-vegetal shelter that doubles as a floating garden. “Pergola” is a depiction of vegetation forming a shaded pathway.

Oscar-winning art director and artist Tim Yip will have his first large-scale solo exhibition, “Tim Yip: Blue – Art, Costumes and Memory”, from November 17 to March 31. Capturing the evolution of his artistic journey, the show will bring to life his collaborations with some of the world’s best filmmakers.

Find out more at http://www.HKDI.edu.hk/hkdi_gallery.

“BREAK THE TANGO”, staged in Bangkok on September 22, was an electrifying dance performance of tango and hip-hop by renowned breakdancers and tango champions from around the world.

The show was part of Bangkok’s 20th International Festival of Dance & Music, which has more treats still ahead.

Choreographer-director German Cornejo led the company through this unexpected fusion of dance, allowing the audience to witness a higher level of artistry, with each number flawlessly combining the strict discipline of tango and the free movement of street dance.

The show started with a captivating piece that introduced the dancers in each of their styles. It combined the staccato footwork of tango and toprock of breakdance.

Each segment had an element of surprise that kept audience members at the edge of their seats. We not only saw tango and hip-hop combined, but tango and ballet choreographed beautifully, as a dancer performs tango on pointe. There was also an aerial duet in which the dancers were spinning effortlessly in the air. And to top it off, there was an emotional contemporary breakdance fusion performed with intricate perfection that brought tears to the eyes.

The dancers’ unbelievable strength showcased from the very beginning was only a part of their physical capabilities. Within the performance they continued to defy gravity in all their movements.

Each dancer had a significant characteristic that blended and unified them perfectly. The female dancers’ extensions, flexibility and athleticism brought a sense of passion, grace and strength to their movements. Combined with the male dancers’ precision of footwork, fluidity and boldness, they created a perfect partnership.

Never had we seen lightning-speed lifts and smooth transitions executed so effortlessly. It was one extraordinary stunt after another, leaving the audience amazed. The grounded movements of breakdancing created a perfect balance to the uplifted movements of tango, a balance that brought out a multilevel aesthetic in dancing.

The show wouldn’t have been complete without the sensational music. Complementing this magnificent performance was the live band onstage. The vocalists were phenomenal as they filled the theatre with their voices, accompanied by the outstanding musicians that kept the music alive.

Alongside performing, the band also continuously interacted with the audience, establishing a personal connection that made the show feel more intimate.

“Break the Tango” is near the top our list of the best dance performances to watch. The mixture of radical creativity, perfection of choreography and its ability to take your breath away is what makes it one of the greatest shows. If you have not seen it yet, make a commitment to watch. It’s worth any admission price.

The festival also features programmes of ballet, orchestra and dance. Check out the schedule at http://www.BangkokFestivals.com.

Supporting the festival are the Crown Property Bureau, Bangkok Bank, Bangkok Dusit Medical Services, BMW Thailand, B Grimm Group, Dusit Thani Bangkok, Indorama Ventures, Ministry of Culture, Nation Group, Major Cineplex, PTT, Singha Corp, Thai Union Group, Thai Airways International, Tourism Authority of Thailand and True Corp. 

The writers are dance teachers – Katrina at St Andrews International School of Bangkok and Karenina at the American School of Bangkok.

ILLUMINATED UNDER a spotlight at London’s British Museum, hand-drawn sketches of Hong Kong’s 2014 Umbrella Movement are part of a new exhibition on dissent that offers a rare glimpse of the artworks produced during the pro-democracy rallies.

The months-long demonstrations, which kicked off on September 28 four years ago, brought parts of the city to a standstill as protest camps took over areas normally clogged with traffic and commercial hustle.

Images of some of the thousands of posters, banners, drawings, sculptures, shrines and caricatures that adorned walls, bridges and roads in the tent-filled camps have been gathered online and in library archives.

But the original works have largely fallen out of view.

Artist Alvin Wong with his sketch of Hong Kong’s Umbrella Movement./AFP

With Beijing tightening its grip on the semi-autonomous city and fears that freedom of speech is being curtailed through moves such as a ban on a pro-independence party and the prosecution of Umbrella Movement leaders, some feel it is safer to send the art abroad.

Fong So was one of dozens of local artists who sketched the protests and his works are on display as part of the British Museum’s “I Object” exhibition.

He has given his entire collection of more than 100 Umbrella Movement sketches to the museum. A yellow umbrella, symbolic of the protest, printed with the lyrics of John Lennon’s “Imagine”, is also on display at the current show from an anonymous donor.

The movement earned its name after protesters used umbrellas to defend against police tear gas on September 28.

An artwork by Alvin Wong  /AFP

“I consider the collection of sketches a documentation of a piece of contemporary history. So, it’s good to see it enter a museum”, says Fong.

He describes the political situation in Hong Kong as “more and more suffocating” and says he plans to send away other politically sensitive works.

Alvin Wong, founder of Hong Kong’s Urban Sketchers group, brought together hundreds of sketches by 31 artists in a book entitled “Sketches under the Umbrella”, published in 2015.

“All these sketches belong to Hong Kong people. We shouldn’t keep them in our own sketchbooks. We have to tell everybody what we saw,” Wong says.

He has sent copies to libraries around the world, mainly in the United States, and says only a few bookstores in Hong Kong would stock it.

Politically sensitive titles have been steadily removed from many city bookshops, particularly since the disappearance in 2015 of five booksellers – known for publishing gossipy accounts of China’s political leaders – who resurfaced in custody on the mainland.

Although Umbrella art and memorabilia were part of local exhibitions soon after the movement, the largest trove is now in storage at the Chinese University of Hong Kong’s (CUHK) library, where the public can only view it as a digital catalogue.

The majority of works were donated by artists and activists who rescued them from the protest camps to create the Umbrella Movement Visual Archive.

The library collection ranges from scrawled slogans on placards to bags, jewellery, kites and sculptures, reflecting the fact that the public, not just accomplished artists, created the ad hoc landscape that became a hallmark of the movement.

But the whereabouts of some major pieces, including the famous 3.6-metre wooden “Umbrella Man” statue, remain a mystery.

Artist Sampson Wong, co-founder of the visual archive group, said they handed over the collection because they lacked the funds and manpower to preserve it.

The library is a “reliable institution”, Wong says, adding: “It preserves a part of the movement that in some years could be overlooked.”

With the democracy camp still on the back foot after the protests failed to win political reform, there is little appetite among activists to mount a public exhibition of the works.

And with concerns over the erosion of freedoms, some who created or collected pieces may prefer to keep them to themselves, says Clarisse Yeung, co-founder of the visual archive, and now a district councillor.

Online photo collections like the wide-ranging Umbrella Movement Art Preservation Facebook page, put together by Hong Kong artist Kacey Wong, also provide a shareable digital resource.

But some feel the physical works should go on show once more.

Oscar Ho, Associate Professor of Practice in Cultural Management at CUHK, says Hong Kong’s new government-funded art museum M+ should devote a gallery to the artworks.

“It’s like the whole world is interested except the institutions of Hong Kong,” says Ho, who has delivered lectures globally about Umbrella art.

M+ told AFP it was still “carefully evaluating this recent past” and would not currently consider Umbrella Movement works for its collection.

Hong Kong-born academic Dan Tsang, a former visiting Fulbright scholar at CUHK researching how to archive protest culture, says he is concerned that works not yet gathered from the public may be thrown away or sent out of the city.

“I think people like to touch and see the real thing, the actual artwork — it’s different from just looking at a digital image on a computer screen or phone,” he says.

THOUGH LAMPHUN is a small province and is often neglected by travellers in a hurry to get to Chiang Mai, it’s home to four celebrated artists. Inson Wongsam, Prasong Luemuang, Praphan Srisuta and Charoon Boonsuan have all opened galleries in the hope of making the peaceful provincial capital a gathering place for art lovers.

A 20-minute drive from revered Phra That Hariphunchai on Highway 106 on the way to Muang Nga district, Charoon welcomes visitors to his Baan Bao Kaew Art Gallery, which is filled with his characteristic impressionist and semi-abstract paintings.

Charoon Boonsuan’s Baan Bao Kaew Art Gallery houses his impressionist and semi-abstract paintings.

“Lamphun is my wife’s hometown,” he says. “The gallery is open daily from 9 to 5 and there’s no admission charge, so everyone is welcome to come and share and learn about the arts.”

He does most of the sharing – he has more than 2,000 painting in oils and acrylics on view. They collectively trace his artistic career, spanning more than 50 years. The journey begins with a small New Year greeting card he painted as a child.

Charoon Boonsuan

“People always ask why I like to paint flowers so much,” Charoon says. “I say I don’t like to paint flowers, but I like the colours, and flowers have a multitude of colours. I’ve continued to paint flowers, but they’ve become semi-abstract and I use only one colour.

“I still paint every day, and every morning art students come to learn with me.”

Inson Wongsam’s home-studio, Dhamma Park and Gallery, welcomes visitors every weekend.

Next stop, on the way to Pa Sang district, is the Dhamma Park and Gallery run by National Artist Inson Wongsam. It’s open only weekends, but there are 20,000 of his paintings, wood sculptures and woodcuts to see, some dating back to 1960. Add to this more than 200 bronze sculptures of Inson’s late wife, Wanida Wongsam, who was born as Venetia Walkey.

“I still do all the painting by myself,” he says. “For the wood sculptures, I do sketches and send them to my team to execute. My inspirations come from my long experience – the 50-plus years of my working life.”

Inson Wongsam

This is the living legend who travelled solo by scooter from Bangkok to Italy in 1963. Italy was the homeland of his revered professor, Silpa Bhirasri, who is esteemed as “the father of Thai modern art”, and Inson wanted to learn more about art there.

He set off with a friend, but when they reached India, the friend decided to turn back, and Inson continued the odyssey alone. Along the way he did more sketches and paintings and sold them to cover costs.

A year and a half later, he was in Italy, where he spent three months studying art.

Then he did the same in France for another year, and finally settled down in France to work for two more years.

“My paintings are inspired by Buddhist philosophy and they’re mostly abstract paintings and wood sculptures,” he explains.

Prasong Luemuang has both his work and that of young artists on display at the Pan Boonmee Boonsri Art Gallery.

A 20-minute drive further on and you come to the Pan Boonmee Boonsri Art Gallery, which Prasong Luemuang opened in 2012.

“I wanted to give young artists a chance to show their work here and the public the opportunity to learn more about Buddhist teaching, as represented in my work,” he says. “The inspiration for my paintings comes from Buddhism, Taoism and Zen and is presented in both realistic and abstract forms.”

Free of charge you can view about 1,000 of Prasong’s pieces and other works by the young artists he mentors. A new building is being constructed to expand the exhibition space and is expected to be ready by the end of this year.

Praphan Srisuta shares more than 60 pieces of his pieces at his own gallery. 

Woodcut master Praphan Srisuta has his gallery right in Muang Lamphun on a two-rai property, presenting more than 60 pieces.

Praphan got interested in art while still quite young and continued at Silpakorn University. He once took part in an exhibition at the YMCA in Singapore and sold 69 of the 71 pieces he took along.

“I love to do woodcut paintings because you can do many editions, but I also work on oil, in abstract themes,” Praphan says.

Another place to see art in Muang district, due to open before the year is over, will be called Monster Studio. Phattharakorn Singh-Tong, 40, is setting it up on a one-rai rice field as a better showcase for his paintings that his current workplace in a longan orchard. He’ll share 600 semi-abstract oils and watercolours also inspired by Buddhist philosophy.

Phattharakorn Sing-Tong shows some of his work that will be relocated to a new site in January. 

Phattharakorn had set his art aside for seven years but plunged back in two years ago. Needing a complete change in his life and his pace of living, Phattharakorn debunked to quiet Lamphun, where his wife was born and raised.

“I don’t have a studio at home – I’ve just been renting the space in the longan orchard,” he says. “But I can walk to work every day and paint whatever catches my fancy in the surroundings, such as the longan farmers taking care of their fruit.

“The limited resources weren’t a problem and I quickly found I could paint without expensive gear, just by using what I was feeling inside and the inspiring nature around me. Some days I have to deal with the rain but it doesn’t stop me painting. And when the paint dries, it has a new texture. This is nature’s way and it’s how I work today.”

Always Welcome

Charoon Boonsuan’s Baan Bao Kaew Art Gallery is at 33/2 Expressway No 106, Muang Nga, Muang district. It’s open daily from 9 to 5. Call (053) 510739 or see “buakaew.artgallery” on Facebook.

Inson Wongsam’s Dhamma Park Gallery is at 109/2 Moo 1, Baan Pa Sang Noi, Baan Pen, Muang district. It’s open weekends from 9 to 5. Call (080) 789 5098

Prasong Luemuang’s Pan Boonmee Boonsri Art Gallery is at 123/6 Soi 5/1 Moo 5 Ton-Tong, Muang district. It’s open daily from 9 to 5.

Praphan Srisuta’s gallery is at Baan Pang Kee Soi 3 Moo 8, Ton Tong, Muang district. It’s open daily from 9 to 5.

Phattharakorn Singh-Tong’s Monster Studio will open in January at Vieng Yong in Muang district. Call (095) 450 4918.