For Immediate Release
Contact: Lisa Sol, PR Department, Mom Tri's Boathouse
Kata Beach , Phuket Tel: 66-76-330-015 Fax: 66-76-330-561
Opening Saturday 6 May 2006 at 19.00h
‘Modern Thai' an exhibition at Mom Tri's Gallery
Born in one of Bangkok 's suburbs in 1979, Pongpipat grew up in the country side. Buffaloes and rice fields, plants and trees surrounded him as a kid, a very wholesome environment to grow up in which left him with a healthy respect for nature. His favourite subject in school was arts, with painting on top of the list of things he liked to do best and excelled at. Neither his sister and three brothers nor his parents had any particular artistic talents but they were all supportive of Pongpipat's ambition to become an artist. He auditioned to become admitted to Rajamongala University 's Fine arts and Painting Department and his portfolio, with a selection of the best of his water colours, drawings and oil paintings was promising enough for him to be selected as one of the few lucky entrants. Each year roughly 2.000 aspiring budding artist from all-over Thailand apply to be admitted however only about a 100 can be accepted. Life changed for young Pongpipat as Bangkok now became his home, with all the noise, traffic and pollution that are part of big city life but in Pongpipat's heart he kept treasured images of the country side of his childhood. Nature featured strongly in his early work, mostly depicted in a surreal style influenced by his favourite artist Pathit Kachabua, master of Surealism. His childhood environment outside busy Bangkok provided a source of inspiration with images of rice farms, temples and lotus flowers used in his art work to remind him of the past. While at university in one of the art classes, students were given an assignment about beliefs and origin which led Pongpipat into studying Buddhism in life and art. Inspired by Buddhism he wanted to express how one is affected by time passing in one's life. He began with the ‘Circle of Life' paintings using images such as lotus buds, flowers, waves, and sun and moon patterns.
Mom Tri's Gallery Lobster Square is hosting Pongpipat's recent art work in a solo exhibition, his first exhibition in Phuket. His range of over twenty acrylic paintings on show has symbols of nature and Buddhism interwoven to create powerful images that represent Pongpipat's view of life and life cycles. Some paintings such as ‘Bua Talay' (Sea Lotus) are based on the life cycle of the lotus which represents life. It starts with the seed of the lotus, the seed of life very deep inside each of us. “By letting go of desires and needs in our life we can become much happier people”. “We can try to learn to be content with what we have, as that is all that we need at the moment”. Some of the paintings remind one of images that can be found at temples, with intricate designs of waves and flowers that are repeated with minute details. Colours are a vibrant red, green, blue and have lashings of real gold that lend a pure and rich hue to the paintings.
To paraphrase Pongpipat's words: “I take something old and something new, then I mix the styles together and so I create art”.
Copyright © 2006 Mom Tri's Boathouse
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