Songdej Thipthong

The functional appearance of Songdej Thipthong’s studio in a suburb of Chiang Rai does not begin to suggest the intricate delicacy of the paintings that populate his workspace. However, the bare concrete walls highlight the minute details of Songdej’s light, but labor-intensive, renderings of traditional Thai temples and related imagery.

A MFA graduate in Thai Art from Bangkok’s Silpakorn University, Songdej is a Chiang Rai native who chose to return. Nevertheless, he maintains a national profile and regularly exhibits across the Kingdom. The Thai Art program at Silpakorn University is notable for encouraging students to experiment greatly with traditional forms and references, and Songdej can be considered one of their finest graduates.

His paintings, typically in acrylic and gold-leaf on canvas, situate Buddhist imagery within stylized landscapes of hills and mountains or other organic motifs. If he is not painting traditional Thai temples, the forms of the Naga, chedis, symbolic wheels and animal characters from Asian lunar calendars emerge from his deeply considered and contemplative patterned surfaces.

Tradition is very important to Thai artists, and tradition is understood in terms of Theravada Buddhism and the identification of particularly Thai sensibilities.

Songdej explores these references to produce an art of distilled understandings; while being fresh and innovative, his works nevertheless insist on the significance of the historical past.