Thai Art Is Awesome

The first time I visited Bangkok’s Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA) was January 2020 and things were starting to get weird in Thailand. The bug that would become known as COVID-19 had just arrived in the Thai capital. My cab driver couldn’t stop coughing, couldn’t catch his breath. I was distracted.

However, after arriving at the museum, I was swept up in the fantastic art experience it offers.

When I returned, almost exactly three years later, it was equally mesmerizing. The MOCA was packed during my previous visit but now the crowds had thinned considerably. “The pandemic slowed things down, of course,” Kanachai “Kit” Bencharongkul, the museum’s director and son of its founder, explained. “But they’re coming back.”

Then he showed me around what is, frankly, a dazzling museum.

Established a decade ago, the MOCA Bangkok houses an expansive collection of artworks from some of Thailand’s most renowned artists. It was launched and is privately owned by telecommunications executive Boonchai Bencharongkul, who always dreamed of being an artist but instead went into business.

The museum leans into surrealism, much of which involves elements of Buddhist mythology. It’s a delightfully vibrant, eclectic place, featuring pieces rich in color, patterns and dreamlike folklore and with tonally diverse scenes: soothing, strange, erotic, chaotic, profound, playful.

The Thai art scene has developed enormously in recent decades — art appréciateurs from all over the globe might want to start paying attention. The MOCA Bangkok is the perfect place to make your introduction. Here are a few things to look for when you go.

The works of Thawan Duchanee headline MOCA’s collection. He was born in 1939 and raised in the city of Chiang Rai in northern Thailand, which has produced many of the country’s most renowned artists (you’ll see it popping up again below). Duchanee’s work leans into Buddhist themes and a monochromatic use of black, silver, gold and vibrant red. Over the course of his life. Duchanee has enjoyed a close relationship with the MOCA’s founder, and accordingly the collection boasts dozens of his stunningly simple yet boldly profound paintings — most of which are untitled.

According to Kit, these tigers were painted quickly — in under two minutes each — to capture a sense of motion, lending the series an almost flip-book impression of propulsion.

Kit had an interesting story to accompany the piece above. Many years ago it was included in a showing at a Catholic school, where the crucifixion-like pose of its central figure caused such an uproar that someone actually stabbed the painting. If you can get up close, you can still see the stab mark, right beside the man’s right thigh and in front of the jaws of the wolf.

Another artist who hails from Chiang Rai, Chalermchai Kositpipat (born 1955), is best known for designing the city’s famed Wat Rong Khun, better known as the White Temple — the construction of which is not expected to be finished for another 50 years. Many of his standout paintings are on display at the MOCA, including The Blessing of Lord Buddha, Spiritual Eye and The Gateway to Nirvana — the last of which includes direct visual references to the White Temple.

A Bangkok native, Prateep Kochabua was commissioned to produce a range of scenes from Buddhist mythology. These are almost all intricate, large paintings, the most renowned (and largest) of which is the massive triptych called Three Kingdoms.

Somphong Adulyasarapha is like the Dali of Thailand. His somewhat playful but also rather off-putting scenes are otherworldly. Because the pieces are so complex in detail, it often takes him years to complete a single painting.