Angkrit Ajcharasophon

Angkrit Ajcharyasophon initially trained as a painter before completing a MA in Media Arts at Chiang Mai University. A polymorphous artist who works with a variety of media and modes, usually in combination, Angkrit is rapidly emerging as one of Thailand’s brightest art stars.

Angkrit’s art is partly rooted in northern Thailand’s tradition of relational and/or participatory art, and the longer traditions of performance art, assemblage, and DADA.

At issue are concerns with broadening the boundaries of what art is and what art can be, as well as generating dialogue with people who might not ordinarily encounter art. Examples of Angkrit’s art include quirky forms of portraiture, installations of found objects and images, an “Angkrit Fan Club” formed on Valentine’s Day in 1998, a dwelling that addressed an intersection between art, agriculture, and Buddhism for The Land Foundation, in 2002, and the performance and installation “Perfect English Gentleman” in 2006, which poked colonial models of conduct.

His titles can sometimes be disarming. In 1998, Angkrit conducted a critique of consumerism under the title “Shit in the Pizza Box and Pee in the Pepsi Bottle.”

Angkrit’s work is testament to the importance of art as a means of raising questions and providing insights about the society we live in; this is all the more effective because of the artist’s great sense of provocative humor.