Bangkok Art Biennale Explores“Angels & Mara” With 72 Artists

(MENAFN- USA Art News) The fifth Bangkok Art Biennale (BAB), titled“Angels & Mara,” recently opened in Thailand's capital, showcasing works by 72 artists and collectives across 11 venues. The exhibition's theme draws from Buddhist cosmology, where Mara is a demon associated with the cycle of death and rebirth, delusions, and“unskillful” emotions such as hatred and lust. Organizers state the biennale serves as an arena for artists to“reflect their views on the suffering world we live in.”

Artistic director Apinan Poshyananda and curators Adulaya Hoontrakul, Rémy Jarry, Melanie Pocock, and Kulapat Yantrasast organized the event. This edition features fewer participants and locations than the inaugural 2018 biennale, which included 75 artists and 20 venues. Over two-thirds of the participating artists are from Asia, with 19 artists from Thailand, and the selection leans towards emerging rather than mid-career artists.

As in previous editions, artworks are strategically placed in diverse settings, from sacred temples and palaces to modern office towers and shopping malls. At the Bangkok National Museum, Chinese artists Sun Yuan and Peng Yu's fiberglass and silica gel sculpture, Angel (2008), is on view. This work gained viral attention in 2015 due to social media hoaxes claiming it depicted a real deceased angel. Also at the National Museum, Liu Jianhua's Square (Siamese Triangle) (2014–26) incorporates a flat steel wedge with the backdrop of gold thrones. Thai artist Teerapon Sisung's intricate copper wire crown jewels, including a replica of the Royal Crown of Thailand, are displayed in the same hall. The original gold crown on which Sisung's replica was modeled was stolen from the Château de Fontainebleau in 2015 and has not been recovered.

The biennale also features installations in Buddhist temples along the Chao Phraya River. At Wat Pho, Cologne-based Japanese artist Leiko Ikemura's bronze figure Memento Mori (2013/26) is situated near the renowned Reclining Buddha. Monsters are a pervasive theme throughout the exhibition. Max Hooper Schneider's The Crocodile Pond Grotesques (2026) at Wat Pho presents brass chimeras of plant and animal forms. Thai stand-up comedian-turned-artist Udom Taephanich's THE TENANTS OF MY MIND (2026) at Museum Siam includes ceramic figures resembling“Sesame Street puppets in hell.”

At Silpakorn University's Art Centre, American artist Mel Chin has crafted a disco environment using baskets and agricultural tools, animated by hand cranks, featuring Thai spirits Krasue and Krahang. Upstairs, French artists Pierre et Gilles present photorealistic paintings of“idols,” including fallen angels and the mythical Thai serpent Phayanak, rendered as homoerotic tableaux. Their 2004 painting of former muay Thai champion Nong Toom is one of several works addressing transgender subjects, acknowledging Thailand becoming the first Southeast Asian country to recognize same-sex marriage last year.

The Bangkok Art and Culture Centre (BACC), the biennale's largest venue, features Korean artist Shin Min's 12-foot-tall paper busts The Students (2026). An accompanying text notes one figure's visible Adam's apple,“embodying a ladyboy presence.” Inside, hundreds of Polaroid self-portraits by Japanese artist Yasumasa Morimura reimagine the self in various roles and genders. Taiwanese artist Liu Hsing Yu's photo series, begun in 2009, depicts his parents cross-dressing, adorned with painted gold halos. His compatriot Yuan Goang-Ming's video Everyday War (2024) addresses anxiety of invasion by showing a living room exploding under gunfire at 240 frames per second.

Thai artist Manit Sriwanichpoom's YouTube edit The Banality of Evil (2026) addresses the genocide in Gaza. At Silpakorn University, an installation by Ri (who withholds her full name) focuses on the humanitarian crisis in Myanmar. While the biennale does not directly address the conflict in Thailand's deep south, which has killed 7,000 people since 2004, it is referenced in photographs by Mahtab Hussain and a supercut he created with Guy Gunaratne about the British Muslim experience.

Digital works by Chinese artist Song Kun, including sculptures and paintings, are exhibited at the One Bangkok hotel and shopping complex, owned by Charoen Sirivadhanabhakdi, founder of ThaiBev, a sponsor of both BAB and BACC. Separately, Sin Wai Kin's 2024 photograph Essence, a men's cologne ad, is displayed on a large digital screen, exploring gender construction.

A related work, Korakrit Arunanondchai's video installation Love After Death (2025), about a Sihuhata ghost from northern Thailand, is on view at Bangkok CityCity Gallery, though not officially part of the biennale. The Bangkok Art Biennale has reportedly drawn 5.5 million visitors across its first four editions, supported by private sector funding. American artist Mel Chin, known for his conceptually driven works, is a notable participant in this year's biennale.

Source: Artnet News

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