On September 14, a new exhibition of Amorn Pinpimai’s work opened at artThailand’s Livin’ Gallery in Bangkok. Twenty new paintings are presented, mostly oils on canvas. The exhibition will be open to the public until October 14. Vivid and bold in its use of color, shape and form, this new work from Amorn is, in our opinion, his best to date. Early indications suggest that the media, art buyers and the Thai art community agree.

Why not take a look at the full collection at blog.artthailand.net/gallery/index.php?level=collection&id=3 [http://blog.artthailand.net/gallery/index.php?level=collection&id=3]

You’ll also find some fun pictures from the opening of the exhibition at the same address. I’ve edited out the most outrageous ones, but I’ll be adding the post-party pics and the ones I know are outrageous soon.

Born in 1968 in northern Thailand, Amorn Pinpimai now resides in Bangkok and works as a professor in the Department of Arts at Valaya Alongkorn Rajabhat University (and no, I can’t pronounce the name of the university either!).

Jovial, shy, but at the same time larger than life, Amorn comes across as one of life’s nice people. He is egoless, charmingly polite, you feel that he is more comfortable in the calm and peace of Chiang Rai and Chiang Mai than in the hustle and bustle of Bangkok, and yet he paints with passion, vigor and verve.

He paints not only what he sees, but what his imagination and emotion allow him.

I can tell you three pretty funny stories that sum up Amorn’s attitude to life. First, I mentioned that he is actually quite a shy man. Well, although I searched a lot, out of 171 photographs taken at the opening of the exhibition yesterday, I couldn’t find a single one of him. How he managed to stay away from the camera, I don’t know. I am notoriously camera shy and yet found myself in over 20 pictures.

Second, if you look at the image here on the right, you can tell that it’s painted on two canvases. He was intrigued so I asked him why. He said something like: “Oh Khun Adam, I woke up one morning and had the idea for this painting. I knew I had to start it then or I would lose my mind. I searched all over my studio but could not find a canvas of the correct size. So I decided to use two canvases.“I love it! It’s so classic and wonderfully Thai.

Interestingly, however, this painting seems to be the most admired of the entire collection, although it is not the artist’s personal favourite.

Third, you may notice that almost all of Amorn’s work features the female form. Convinced that there must be some obscure and symbolic reason for this, I asked him once more, why? The response was quick, direct, and emotionless. “I prefer women to men.“Ok, well that’s clear. Guess I need to start looking elsewhere for my symbolism!”

So let’s talk a little bit about his work and what he’s trying to tell us. Most of Amorn’s previous work has been using acrylic on canvas. This is the first large collection of oil paintings by her. Having started her career using mixtures of white, black and grey, she has gradually evolved into a much wider range of colours, and I feel oil has given her the freedom to be much bolder in her use of colour. For me color is one of the most important parts of any painting. I love the color mixes and Amorn’s are some of the best I’ve seen in a long time.

The title of the collection is “In the Dream”. It is a topic that he has been exploring for a long time. On the one hand, it tries to answer the question: what do dreams tell us? On the other hand, he believes that the interpretation of a dream is less important than the sensation of the dreams themselves and the emotional response they induce in us.

As Amorn himself says: “What if we only listen to the sounds that silently resonate after the moment of a dream? What if we use our dreams as an invitation to enter a mysterious universe where answers and explanations are less important than the sensations themselves?“

Amorn does not seek answers or solutions. He compares his work process to a meditative state in which his imagination and creation are awakened by silently listening to the breath of his lungs and the beating of his heart.

Ok, but does this mean anything or is it just pseudo babble? Well, actually yes, it means something and something that is quite important.

What Amorn is trying to say is that it doesn’t matter what he had in mind when he created a work because each of us will interpret a work of art according to our own interests, prejudices, desires, emotional state, etc. In this noisy society where art often suffers from too much meaning and analysis, we often forget that art, above all, creates spaces for reflection, contemplation and silence, almost as if we are observing a dream.

Some of you will know that I am passionate about the work of Antoni Gaudí. I can’t really explain why except to say that his work sharpens my senses, allows me to forget everything around me and “speaks” to me. Does it matter that I can’t explain it?

I say no and Amorn agrees. His point, again, is that the interpretation of a dream is less important than the feeling of that dream.

There is a technique he uses that explains the point very well. You will notice that it uses a series of very common figures and symbols, such as the moon, snakes and birds. So I asked what do these symbols mean? His response was interesting because she said, “I can not tell you.“Well, that didn’t help me much, so I pressed the point.”Ok, Khun Adam, this is why I can’t tell you. You’re english. You are a Christian. For you, the snake is probably associated with the Garden of Eden, with original sin, with betrayal, deceit and mistrust. I am Thai. I am Buddhist. The snake has a very different meaning to me. The same goes for all symbols. Our response to them depends on many things… socioeconomic circumstances, experience, attitude, culture. I could go on forever.“

So, unlikely as it may seem, here we have an artist brave enough to admit that what his work says depends on what you think it says, further implying that whether you like it is up to you and not the art establishment. certain.

I like it! It’s a refreshing attitude. Too often I feel like we’re told what we should like and treated like jerks if we “don’t get it”. I like the attitude but I also like the work. It is rich in color. It makes me feel warm and comfortable. It’s a bit mysterious. It is calming and calming.